NonSub Change Memo - MIHOPE K Sept 2021

To: Jordan Cohen

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

From: Laura Nerenberg and Nancy Margie

Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE)

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Date: September, 27 2021

Subject: NonSubstantive Change Request – Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation Kindergarten follow-up (MIHOPE-K) (OMB #0970-0402)

This memo requests approval of nonsubstantive changes to the approved information collection, Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation Kindergarten follow-up (MIHOPE-K) (OMB #0970-0402).

Background

The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE) is a longitudinal study providing information about the effectiveness of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. The purpose of MIHOPE-K is to conduct a follow-up study that assesses the long-term impact of the MIECHV Program when the participating children are in kindergarten. Since initially approved, data collection for the first two cohorts (approximately 2,700 families) has been completed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health emergency restrictions, the project was forced to delay the planned data collection with MIHOPE families with children in kindergarten in the 2020-2021 academic year. Completing data collection has required the project team to develop an option for virtually collecting data originally collected in-person in participants’ homes. A pre-testing generic OMB package has facilitated the preparation of this option (OMB #0970-0355). Data collection for the approximately 1,400 families remaining is planned to begin in January 2022.

The current information collection is approved through November 30, 2021. A full extension request is currently in process.

Overview of Requested Changes

The MIHOPE-K team proposes nonsubstantive COVID-19 pandemic-related changes to our data collection activities (caregiver survey, teacher survey, and activities we have been doing while in families’ homes [i.e., child direct assessments, a direct assessment with the caregiver, and a video-recorded caregiver-child interaction]) and related materials. We have also made some minor non-pandemic related changes to contact materials to address families’ reactions to contact materials used to date.

Proposed changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic include the following:

• We added a few items to the caregiver survey to obtain information about children’s experiences in formal schooling during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years and to facilitate the introduction of the virtual option for the in-home visit. The items added to the caregiver survey are routed based on the child’s schooling experiences in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years; therefore, the additional burden for these new items is estimated as 1.8 minutes (Attachment 1).

• We created a module of the teacher survey that can be fielded if children are engaged in remote learning during the 2021-2022 school year (Attachment 3). If teachers complete this module, the survey routing is such that they will not be asked to respond to some of the original questions in the survey. Therefore, no additional burden will be required for survey completion.

• We made changes to the contact materials for families to introduce the virtual visit and to acknowledge the ongoing pandemic (Attachment 7).

• We made changes to the contact materials for teachers to acknowledge the module of the teacher survey that will be fielded in children are engaged in remote learning (Attachment 8).

• We made minor adaptations to the components of our in-home visit (the direct assessments of children, direct assessments of caregivers, and videotaped caregiver-child interactions) so that they can be conducted without a staff member being present in families’ homes for these activities. In the “virtual visit” option, these activities would take place through an online video call with an assessor. The activities themselves remain unchanged. In Attachments 2, 4, and 5, we show the in-person version of the activity and the virtual version of the activity. To account for additional time that may be needed for technology troubleshooting during the direct assessments of children, we have added 5 minutes of additional burden per response. Based on piloting, we expect that the set-up for the assessments should not require additional burden beyond what was required for set up for assessments conducted in the home, which was included in the burden previously approved.

• Throughout materials, we added references to first grade, as data collection needed to be delayed for the children who were in kindergarten in the 2020-2021 school year, and they will be in first grade when data are collected.

We also edited the item in the caregiver survey asking about the child’s sex to specifically ask about sex assigned at birth and added separate questions to ask about the child’s gender identity and the pronouns the child uses. These revisions intend to make the caregiver survey more inclusive of all gender identities and to ensure the correct pronouns are used for the child throughout the caregiver survey (Attachment 1).

Because the semi-structured interviews with MIHOPE families have concluded, we have updated the burden table to reflect completion of these interviews (the semi-structured interview protocol had previously been included as Attachment 3 and relevant contact materials were included as Attachments 15, 16, and 17).

We have updated the burden table to show total remaining burden for the MIHOPE-K study and additional burden per response for the caregiver survey and direct child assessments. As described above, the additional burden per response for the caregiver survey is due to the addition of items asking about child’s schooling, and for direct child assessments accounts for up to five minutes of time to troubleshoot the technology used in the remote administration.

Time Sensitivities

The current expiration date for this information collection is November 30, 2021. We would like to submit the extension request as soon as possible, following the 60 day comment period (estimated to be the last week in November). To submit that request, we must have these changes approved so there are no pending requests under this OMB number. Additionally, the study team needs to begin to engage in outreach to MIHOPE families prior to starting data collection in the field. This engagement includes some contact materials for which we are currently requesting updates.