Descriptive Study of Early Head Start: Recruitment materials

LETTER TO:

FROM:

DATE:

PAGE: 0

P.O. Box 2393

Princeton, NJ 08543-2393

Telephone (609) 799-3535

Fax (609) 799-0005

www.mathematica-mpr.com

Spring 2009

Dear [FILL PARENT]:

[FILL Program NAME] is participating in the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (Baby FACES). This study will gather information that will help the Early Head Start program improve services to families with infants and toddlers. The survey is sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., an independent research company. This is a very important study, and we strongly encourage selected families to participate if they can!

If you consent to be in the study and your family is selected to participate in it, we will interview you in spring 2009, and each spring thereafter until your child is 3 years old. We will ask you questions about the kinds of things your child can do, about your family’s activities and rules, about your feelings, and about your health. These interviews will take about one hour and will be conducted in your language. We will give you $35 after each interview to thank you for your help.

So that Baby FACES can find out how Early Head Start helps children learn and grow, we will also complete some fun activities with your child at his or her child care center or through a home visit These activities take about 30 minutes. We will also ask your child’s Early Head Start teacher or home visitor how your child is progressing, and we will measure your child’s height and weight. Each time your child participates, your child will receive a special thank-you gift.

You can choose whether or not you and your child will be part of the study. Your decision about participation will not affect the Early Head Start services you and your child are receiving. Also, we want to assure you that all information from this study will be strictly confidential. Nothing that you share with us will ever be connected with your name or your child’s name. The information will not be shared with your Early Head Start program and will not be passed on to any school or government agency in a way that can be connected with you. The information that is collected will appear only in reports in which individual names are never used and in which individuals are never identified. There is one exception—if we learn that a child has been abused or is endangered we must report this to the appropriate authorities, which could result in official action in accordance with state law.

If you have any questions about the Baby FACES study, please call me toll free at [xxx-xxx-xxxx]. I would be happy to talk with you. If you have any questions about your rights as a research volunteer, please call XXXX toll free at [xxx-xxx-xxxx].

C.14

Please sign the attached consent form and give it to your Early Head Start home visitor or teacher at the Early Head Start program. Thank you for helping us.

Sincerely,

[MPR Baby FACES COORDINATOR]