Supporting and Learning from Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Implementation Research and Evaluation: Understanding the Two-Phase Grant Structure to Inform Future Research

OMB Control No.: 0970-0356

Expiration Date: 03/31/2018

Supporting and Learning from Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Implementation Research and Evaluation

Attachment D: Follow-up Phone Interview Guide for Grantees

32 Respondents

60 Minutes

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 70 minutes per response, including the time to review related information and instructions and to schedule and complete the interview. This information collection is voluntary. 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. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Reports Clearance Officer (Attn: OMB/PRA 0970-0356), Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services, 330 C Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20201.

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this phone interview. My name is [NAME] and this is my colleague [NAME]. We are both researchers at the Urban Institute. As you know, the Urban Institute has a contract from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families to support the efforts of grantees awarded CCDBG Implementation Research and Evaluation Planning grants. As part of that contract, we are engaging in a data collection to objectively document how the planning process unfolds for grantees and the benefits and challenges of having a two-stage grant structure, that is, having a separate planning grant now and an implementation grant in the future. The information collected will be used for internal planning purposes only, to guide ACF’s future research and technical assistance activities.

Although we appreciate speaking with you, your participation in the interview is completely voluntary. Your decision to participate in this interview and the overall data collection will not affect any funding you may be receiving or your eligibility to receive future government funding.

At the conclusion of the data collection, we will write a final report and submit it to the federal government. When we write our report and discuss the study findings, information from all informants is compiled and presented so that no one person is identified. We will not attribute responses to you or your state or territory. However, although individuals will not be cited as sources, a reader might be able to infer the identity of the information source given the small number of grantees.

In efforts to protect your privacy, the report will be an internal document; it will not be published or shared beyond the evaluation team and the federal government. We will not share a copy of the report with your agency or any other grantees. Further, the report will be submitted to the government after implementation grants have been awarded; your participation in this interview and the responses you provide will have no bearing on any grant award decisions.

The interview will last about 60 minutes. You may skip any question you do not wish to answer and you may end the interview at any time. Although you may not directly benefit from participation, this data collection will ultimately be used internally by the Administration for Children and Families for future research planning. Feedback provided by grantees will be crucial in this process.

We value the information you will share with us today and want to make sure we accurately capture all the details. A research assistant will take typed notes as we speak and will label the file with a unique identification number, and not your name or your state’s name. We will audio record the interview to help fill in our notes later, but we will not share this recording with anyone outside the evaluation team and will destroy the file after our notes are cleaned and complete.

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 collection is 0970-0356.

Do you agree to participate today?

Okay, let’s get started.

1. Last time we spoke with you/your team, we discussed the two-stage grant structure—that is, having a separate planning grant and implementation grant.

   1. Looking back on the past year since you were awarded a grant, tell me how—if at all—you have benefited from this planning grant?

Probe for benefits related to: building partnerships, collaborating with other grantees, identifying data sources, developing research questions and study design methods, carrying out preliminary analyses, building a general capacity for studying CCDF policy implementation.

2. What, if any, challenges have you experienced with this structure?

Probes for challenges with: length of period of performance, timing of grant awards, funding amount, specific grant requirements, and no guarantee of implementation grant.

3. Have your views towards the grant structure changed at all over the course of the year? If so, how?

1. If the government were to repeat opportunities like this, would modifications to the grant structure would you recommend?

Prompts:

• Would you recommend having a longer or shorter planning period?

• Would you recommend having separate planning and implementation grants or a different structure, such as grants without a lengthy planning phase or grants that include a planning and implementation phase in one grant?

• What are the pros and cons of having a full grant without a separate planning phase?

Probe on how much time and funding is needed to plan.

3. Tell me how your planning has evolved in the past year.

   1. What are some key steps or milestones you have reached?

   2. How close are you to a final study design plan?

Probe on progress made, resources used to build capacity, any delays or challenges faced, how much longer before they will have a final plan. If already have a plan, probe if ready for implementation now.

4. How, if at all, do you think this grant opportunity helped you build capacity?

   1. Where do you think you would be if you did not receive this planning grant?

Probe on whether the agency would have pursued this line of research regardless and how this planning grant offered motivation, time, resources, etc.

2. In what areas do you feel you still need to build capacity to carry out your planned research?

Probe on whether has applied for or plans to apply for an implementation grant.

3. If you do not receive an implementation grant, do you think your agency will still move forward with an evaluation?

1. What advice would you share with other CCDF lead agencies interested in conducting this kind of research?

Probe on what grantee has learned about data sources, study design, evaluation partnerships, policy implementation, and other factors that would be important for others to know.

6. Is there anything else you would like to share that I have not asked about already?

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