Child Welfare Study to Enhance Equity with Data (CW-SEED)

Instrument 1: Informational call topic guide

Child Welfare Study to Enhance Equity with Data (CW-SEED)

Instrument 1: Informational call topic guide

These discussions will help the Child Welfare Study to Enhance Equity with Data (CW-SEED) project team understand the data practices that local child welfare agencies and other organizations involved with child welfare agencies use data to examine equity in child welfare services and family outcomes. The respondents will include leaders from the child welfare agency.

The average estimated public reporting burden for this collection of information is about 60 minutes per discussion. Providing information is voluntary, and all responses that are collected are kept private to the extent permitted by law.

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 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0356, and the expiration date is 2/29/2024.

Background

1. Introduce the project team

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. My name is [NAME,] and my colleague is [NAME]. We are from Mathematica, an independent research firm, and we are here to learn about [DATA PRACTICE OF INTEREST] in [STATE OR LOCAL AGENCY].

Our discussion today will take up to sixty minutes. Please note that this conversation is completely voluntary. You do have not have to participate if you do not want to. All information you share today will be kept private and not shared with anyone beyond our research team.

Please also note that 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 and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: 0970-0356, Exp: 02/29/2024.

2. Explain the project and purpose of discussion

I am going to start by giving you a bit of background and talk about why we wanted to meet with you today. We are conducting the Child Welfare Study to Enhance Equity with Data (CW-SEED) project for the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This project is designed to understand how data practices may be implemented by child welfare agencies to advance equity and address inequities. By data practices we mean the planning, collection, access, and analysis; use of statistical tools and algorithms; and data reporting and dissemination. Findings from this study are intended to identify emerging practices and lessons learned.

We are interested gathering preliminary information about the approaches, processes, challenges, and facilitators to using data practices to advance equity in [AGENCY/ORGANIZATION]. This information will help the CW-SEED project team consider what data practices could potentially be featured in a future case study.

Before we get started, do you have any questions?

3. Discussion questions

Topic guide

1. Can you tell us about the data practices you are currently using to promote equity (mention any practices we have already heard about)?

How are the data used to understand/enhance equity?

2. Tell us about what the practice entails:

Who is involved (such as which staff)?

What population does it aim to address equity for (and how)?

For example, does it aim to address disproportionality for African American children? Improve services for Indigenous communities?

3. How long have you been using these practices?

How do you plan to use these practices in the future?

4. How have you engaged the community in your efforts to promote equity through the use of data?

5. What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered with the/these data practice/s, if any? (If there is time, ask about any data practices they have implemented and have since discontinued and why)

6. We will reach out to sites we would like to formally recruit to participate in the case studies later in the spring. However, at this stage, what are your thoughts about potentially working with us to feature your data practices in a case study?

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for the described information collections is 0970-0356.

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