State Government Responsive

Appendix B.3 Template for Letter from FNS headquarters to State SNAP Directors to Introduce Study

From: FNS Regional Office

To: State SNAP Directors

Subject: Participating in the How States Safeguard SNAP Participants’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Study

[FNS Letterhead]

XX/XX/2021

Dear SNAP State Directors,

FNS has contracted with 2M Research (2M) to conduct an exploratory in-depth study of how State agencies (SAs) protect SNAP participant PII. While SAs implement policies to safeguard SNAP PII, little is known about the policies and practices that SAs have in place. Accordingly, FNS wants to assess the ways that SAs safeguard SNAP PII and to identify best practices to protect such information. An information sheet describing the study is attached.

This letter is to request your support in this study. During the study’s data collection phase (TBD through TBD), the study team will ask all 53 SNAP SAs to participate in the study. The study team will request that each State SNAP director designate one State SNAP administrator to serve as the study team’s point of contact.

• The assigned point of contact will be asked to complete a web-based survey on how security planning and policies, personnel policies and procedures, and operational procedures related to SNAP application processing address PII security in your State. Sections of the survey that are more technical may be directed to other members of your team by simply forwarding this email with the survey link.

• If your State is selected for an in-depth interview, we will contact you in about 3 months to set up that interview. Five States with particularly promising approaches will be selected for these interviews.

Your name and other staff names will never be associated with any data published from this study without your written consent. Responses will generally be grouped across States. However, there is some risk that your State (and even your name) may be identified deductively; we will avoid such risks to the extent that is possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the FNS project officer, Andrew Burns, at andrew.burns@usda.gov or at 703-305-1091.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Kathryn Law

Director, SNAP Analysis and Research Division

Office of Policy Support

USDA Food and Nutrition Service

703-305-2138

Attachment:

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