Appendix Q - Letter from the Office of Child Care

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Appendix Q: Letter from the Office of Child Care on the Interviews, Word Version

[Date]

In collaboration with the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) and the Office of Child Care (OCC), CNA, a non-profit research organization located in Arlington, VA, is conducting a study of states’ and territories’ efforts to implement the out-of-state component of the background check requirements mandated by the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014.

You have been asked by CNA to take part in an interview for this study. We hope you will be able to participate.

The CCDBG Act requires that state and territory child care agencies conduct comprehensive background checks of child care staff that include a search of state (or territory) criminal history records, sex offender registries, and child abuse and neglect registries in each state and territory where the child care staff member resided in the previous 5 years. In response to difficulties states and territories have had implementing these out-of-state background checks, CNA has been asked to conduct this study on implementation challenges and possible solutions.

To inform this effort, CNA is conducting interviews with key informants involved in the background check processes in the states and territories. The in-depth interviews will focus on understanding the specific challenges related to implementing out-of-state background checks and identifying solutions to these challenges. The information that you supply will be used to help ACF support states and territories in complying with the out-of-state background checks for child care workers.

This interview is completely voluntary and individual responses will not be attributed to you. Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Responses may be combined and shared in aggregate at the state level with ACF to inform technical assistance resources.

Please note that the sole purpose of the interviews is to gather data to inform how ACF can better support state and territory agencies. The information that you provide will not be used for punitive or compliance-related decisions or actions.

Thank you very much for your assistance with this important research project. Your participation in an interview is very important to the success of this study.

Sincerely,

Name

Position

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0356 and the expiration date is 06/30/2021.