Instrument 2 - Provider interview #1

HBCC P&E Study Provider Interview #1

DRAFT

Instrument 2. Provider Interview #1

Introduction and consent

[Greet provider] Is now still a good time for you? Just a reminder, I expect this interview will take about one and a half hours.

Great! Thank you again for agreeing to talk to me about your experiences taking care of children. As a reminder, this is the first telephone interview of the Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences Study.

Before we begin, I want to give a short reminder of the purpose of this research and ask for your consent to participate in this study.

The Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences Study is being conducted by Mathematica and the Erikson Institute for the Administration for Children and Families to learn more about the strengths of home-based child care. The study seeks to highlight the voices of people who care for the children of their family, friends, and neighbors. Millions of families rely on the care you and others like you offer children. Yet researchers and policymakers have not paid enough attention to home-based child care, especially care offered by relatives, friends, and neighbors. We hope the study will increase understanding about the important work that people like you do and the ways you support children and families. You know the most about your own experiences, and we want to learn from you. Our goal in this study is to listen to you and improve our understanding of how people like you care for children at home.

[Review this information, which comes directly from the consent statement, i.e., Information about Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences (HBCC P&E) Study Activities for Providers.]

Study activities consist of:

1. A one-on-one interview by phone, which will last about 90 minutes

2. A call to prepare you to take photographs and record audio journal entries (using a phone and software we will provide), which will last up to 1 hour

3. Taking eight photographs and recording eight audio journal entries in response to prompts over a 4-week period, which is expected to take a total of 2 hours over this period

4. A second one-on-one interview by phone/Zoom, which will last about 90 minutes

5. Helping the study team arrange interviews with family members of up to two children in your care, and with one person from the community who provides you support or resources

6. Optional: We will invite you to participate in a 1-hour focus group so we can ask you for your feedback on our preliminary findings

We will send you gift cards as a thank you and to acknowledge your participation in the study. We will send you a $75 gift card if you complete the first one-on-one interview; a $100 gift card if you complete the photo and audio journal entries; and a $75 gift card if you complete the second one-on-one interview. If you choose to participate in the 1-hour focus group, we will send you a $50 gift card.

Your participation is completely up to you and voluntary. There is a small chance that responding to some of our questions could bring up topics that are upsetting to you. You can choose to not answer a question for this, or any other reason, if you wish. We can also pause or stop an interview at any point. There are no other risks, or benefits, to participation. There are no right or wrong answers to any of the questions. You may withdraw from the study at any point without consequences.

We will keep your participation private. We will only use your responses for research purposes and in ways that will not reveal who you are. We will not share your responses with others who participate in the study, including family members of the children you care for and the person in the community who supports you.

We have a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health. The Certificate helps us protect your privacy by limiting when the study team can give out information that identifies you, but there are a few exceptions. For example, if you indicate that you are planning to harm yourself or others, we may be required by law to share that with the appropriate authorities. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) may ask for data for an audit or evaluation. If they do, we will need to provide it. However, only DHHS staff involved in the review will see it.

We will produce reports that will describe the experiences and viewpoints expressed by those we interview. If we use specific quotes, we will not name specific people or anything that would identify someone.

• However, in some previous studies, people have agreed to let researchers share additional details of their experiences and identity because they want to share this with others who take care of children and people interested in supporting child care.

• In the future, we might ask if you are interested in letting us share your details and identity in our reports. We will only share what you feel comfortable sharing and explicitly agree to share.

With your permission, we will record interviews. These recordings will not be shared outside the study team. If you want to say anything that you don’t want recorded, we can pause the recording during the interview. We will delete all recordings, including the audio journal entries you record, at the end of the study (after our analysis of responses from all participating providers is finished).

In the future, responses from this study (with nothing identifying participants) might be securely shared with qualified individuals for additional learning purposes to better understand the strengths of home-based child care.

Finally, because this is a federally funded study, I want to tell you 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 U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB number for this collection is 0970-0612 and the expiration date is 09/30/2024.

[End of consent statement information.]

(If they have email address and we sent consent by email) We also emailed you a letter with this information about the study for your records. Did you receive it? (If no: confirm email address; if no email, explain we will mail it to them with other materials, which we will discuss at end of interview.) Do you have any questions? (Answer any questions.)

Before we start, I would like to record our interview, so I don’t miss anything you say. Again, if at any time you feel uncomfortable during the interview, you can ask me to turn off the recording or stop the interview altogether. Is it okay with you if I record?

If yes: Start recording (by using physical recorder, unless using Zoom or other conferencing software, then record using the software). If no: Continue without recording.

Do you agree to participate in the interview?

If no: It is up to you whether or not you participate. I hope I can address any questions or concerns you have about participating in this interview. Is there additional information about the interview that would make you feel more comfortable? If provider has specific questions about the interview, try to address them. If the provider still does not want to participate, end the interview by stating: Thank you so much for your time. We will not contact you again for this study.

If yes: Continue with interview.

During most of this interview, I will ask you questions about the children you care for, your experiences caring for children, your sources of support and knowledge, and some questions about you. At the end, we will talk about the photographs and audio journal entries that we will ask you to do as well as the community and family members we hope to speak to.

1. Children cared for by provider

1. Let’s start by talking about other people’s children that you care for.

When we spoke [specify time; e.g., last week] about the study, you told us you are caring for [NUMBER] children under age 13 who are not your own children, is that right? Thanks. I’m going to ask you some questions about these children.

1. What are the genders of the children you care for?

2. How old are the children you care for?

3. Did you have a relationship with any of the families of the children you care for before you began caring for them?

4. Do you live in the same household as any of the children you care for? How long have you lived in the same household as this child/these children?

5. How would you describe the racial and ethnic identities of the children you care for?

6. What languages do the children you care for speak at home? What language do you speak with these children?

7. Do you care for any children who have physical or medical conditions that affect the way you care for them?

8. Do you care for any children who have emotional, developmental, or behavioral conditions that affect the way you care for them?

9. How long have you been caring for the children currently in your care? IF NOT SINCE CHILD WAS AN INFANT ASK: Have you cared for any of the children in the past? In a typical week, how many hours do you care for these children? Do you typically care for these children during the day? Do you care for any of these children during early mornings? Evenings? Weekends? Overnight?

10. Do any of the children spend time in any other child care or preschool arrangements?

2. Now, tell me something special about this child/these children. Something that makes you smile.

3. Now let’s talk about your own children.

This includes your biological or adopted children, foster children in care, or other children for whom you are the primary custodial caregiver. Do you have any children? How many? If yes: I’m going to ask you some information about these children, but we will focus only on children under age 13 and those children that reside with you at least on a part-time basis.

1. What are your children’s genders?

2. How old are your children?

3. What is your relationship to your children (For example, foster child, kinship care, own child)?

4. How would you describe your children’s racial and ethnic identities?

5. What languages do your children speak at home? What language do you speak with them?

6. Do you have any children with physical or medical conditions that affect the way you care for them?

7. Do you have any children with emotional, developmental, or behavioral conditions that affect the way you care for them?

8. Do any of your children attend or spend time in a child care or preschool arrangement? [IF SCHOOL-AGE]: What hours are your children in school?

9. Now, tell me something special about your children. Something that makes you smile.

4. Now let’s talk about any adults 18 years or older who help you take care of these children. This could include your own children, your spouse, or any other adults who help you. Are there any adults over 18 who help you? [If more than one helper, go through all of the questions for each.]

5. Please tell me their first name.

6. What is their gender? (IF NEEDED: female, male, non-binary, or a different gender)

7. What is your relationship to [ASSISTANT]?

8. Do you and [ASSISTANT] live in the same household?

9. How old is [ASSISTANT]?

10. How would you describe [ASSISTANT]’s race and ethnic identity?

11. What languages does [ASSISTANT] speak with children?

12. How does [ASSISTANT] help you?

B. Experiences caring for children

Learning about your own experiences caring for other people’s children is one of the reasons we’re doing this study. We’re interested in what is important to you and how you bring your own identity and values into your caregiving. We are particularly interested in how your own cultural identity may influence the way you take care of children because that is something that has not always been considered in research on child care.

13. Tell me about your identity and how it is important to you and your work caring for children.

PROBE IF NEEDED: In our first phone call, you told us that you identify as [USE PROVIDER’S WORDS FROM SCREENER], how is this important to you and your work caring for children?

PROBE: How does your identity define who you are, your strengths, and how you take care of children?

PROBE: How has your identity shaped the opportunities and challenges you face as a caregiver?

14. What else is important to your identity? [Provide examples ONLY if provider is unsure how to answer]: For example, your race, ethnicity, language, faith; your role as a mother, grandmother, or spouse; your role in the community?

[PROBE ONLY if not addressed above]: How important to you is race/ethnicity in describing who you are?

15. People differ in how comfortable they are talking about themselves and especially about race and culture. How comfortable are you discussing race, ethnicity, and culture?

[If not comfortable]: We’re interested in understanding how cultural background influences how you care for children. This is something we don’t always consider in our work, but in this study, we really care about that. If there are any questions that you don’t feel comfortable answering, that is okay, you can just let me know.

16. Now let’s talk about how you started to take care of other people’s children in your home. Please share the story of how you started.

If not answered, ask the following:

• When did you start (how long ago)? (Ask for month/year, approximate is okay.)

• Were there times when you stopped caring for children or took time off?

• How did these arrangements start? Did the parent ask, or did you offer?

• What were your reasons at that time for taking care of children?

• [If started care after March 2020] Did the COVID-19 pandemic and disruptions caused by the pandemic have any effect on your decision to start taking care of children? If so, how?

• [If started care prior to March 2020] What effect, if any, did the COVID-19 pandemic and disruptions caused by the pandemic have on your child care arrangements with these families? Please explain.

17. Thinking about the different children you have cared for, what are some of the reasons you think children’s families choose you rather than other kinds of child care?

[Provide examples ONLY if provider is not clear on how to answer]. For example: some providers say families choose them because of trust or because of flexibility (costs of care; other preschool/child care options aren’t available or don’t meet the families’ needs). Why do you think families choose you to care for their children?

Now let’s talk more about the children you are currently taking care of.

NOTE: For this series, if they only care for one child and this is the only child they have ever cared for, just asked about that specific child. If they care for lots of children or have been doing child care for a long time, then ask about children in general.

18. What are your hopes and dreams for the children you take care of?

PROBE: What are some of the opportunities that you hope children in your care will have access to?

19. What are your concerns and worries about these children as they grow up?

PROBE: What are some of the challenges that children in your care and in your community may face?

20. How do children in your care let you know you are doing a good job when you are taking care of them?

PROBE: How do you know when your care of children is making a difference for them?

21. What do you like about taking care of children?

22. What are some of the difficult or challenging things for you about taking care of children?

PROBE ONLY IF NOT CLEAR (REPHRASE): What is hard for you about taking care of children? doing child care? Can rephrase to ask about specific children in care.

23. You’ve told me a lot about your experiences caring for children. What would you say are the three top reasons you take care of children?

24. How long do you think you’ll be taking care of children or doing child care? Tell me more about that.

[If they answer they plan to care for children as long as they are able or have not planned end date in mind] What keeps you going? Tell me more about that.

[If they answer they are going to stop in 1-2 years or when the youngest child currently in their care enters school] Why do you think you will stop taking care of children? Tell me more about that. What do you think you will do after you stop?

25. [If provider considered licensing/registration/certification from screener or from story above] You mentioned that you have considered becoming licensed [registered/certified] or were licensed [registered/certified] in the past. Please tell me more about this.

PROBE: What are your reasons for thinking about getting licensed? Why did you decide not to? Or why did you let your license go?

[PROBE IF NEEDED]: Where did you get information about becoming licensed?

26. [If did not consider licensing/registration/certification in screener and did not mention in story] Some people decide to get licensed/registered/certified by the state to take care of children. What do you know about the child care licensing/ registration/ certification process? What are some of your reasons for not getting licensed/ registered/ certified? Please tell me more about this.

C. Sources of knowledge and support

We’re going to turn now to talk about where you get information and support that helps you take care of children.

You have shared things you enjoy about caring for children and the things that are hard.

In this next part of the interview, we are going to talk about the people you turn to for information about taking care of children and the people you turn to when you need help and support around taking care of children. For example, the people you might turn to when you are feeling stressed or frustrated. Or the people you turn to when a child is having a hard time.

I want you to think about all the people in your life who support you around caring for children. This could include family members, friends, other child care providers, community members, or people from local agencies or programs. Let’s talk about who they are and how each person helps you. We’re going to put these people in three groups based on how much they help you out.

There is no need to tell us everyone you know. Just give the names of those people who help and support you in your child care work.

27. Beginning with the people who help you with your child care work the most–is there any one person or persons that you feel is so important that it’s hard to imagine taking care of children without them? What is their name and their role? IF NOT STATED: What is their relationship to you?

28. Are there people whom you don’t feel help you quite as much as those you just mentioned, but who still help you a lot? What is their name and role? IF NOT STATED: What is their relationship to you?

29. Are there people whom you haven’t already mentioned, but who you think are important enough to be included here? What is their name and role? IF NOT STATED: What is their relationship to you?

PROBE: Are there any other people in your community whom you think are important to include?

TYPES OF SUPPORT YOU RECEIVE

30. Now, let’s talk about the ways that these people help you with your child care. How do they help you?

IF THEY NEED HELP GETTING STARTED: Think about the people you named first who are most important to your taking care of children [CAN NAME PEOPLE THEY MENTIONED]. What are the ways they help you take care of children? (Ask for examples and for each example, who gives the support.)

PROBE: How else do these people help you?

• Based on initial responses, ask about types of support that are NOT yet mentioned–for each probe, ask for an example and who gives the support.

• Advice or information about taking care of children; e.g., help when a child is having a hard time in your care

• Emotional support when you have a rough day or are feeling stressed

• Information about community resources for children and families

• Financial help

• Materials for children

If someone in the network is not mentioned at all, ask how that person helps them.

D. CCEE system supports

31. [ONLY ASK IF PROVIDER MENTIONS IN SCREENER THAT THEY PARTICIPATE IN ANY FORMAL PROGRAM SUCH AS: Subsidy, QRIS, Food Program, CDA, Training]

You told me in our first call about your participation in [NAME OF CHILD CARE SUBSIDY PROGRAM OR FOOD PROGRAM OR QRIS SUPPORT OR TRAINING]. How has your experience been participating in this program?

PROBE: In what ways has it helped you care for children? Work with families? What kinds of challenges have you experienced?

32. What were your reasons for pursuing this?

33. Tell me about any other opportunities you have had to work with programs in the local community. How have these programs helped you in your care of children?

PROBE: Experience with early intervention, mental health consultant, social worker?

PROBE: Experience with your local library? Play group? Community center? Elementary school? Early childhood or family support agency?

PROBE: Experience with other caregivers or providers? Individually or through networks or other places to meet other caregivers?

34. My last question for you is, if you could get any support or help around taking care of other people’s children, what sort of help would you want?

PROBE: What sort of activities or programs do you wish you had access to? Why?

PROBE: Tell me about any help that you have wanted but did not receive.

E. Demographic characteristics

Now I have a few questions about you. Remember, all of this information will be kept private. You can choose not to answer, if you wish.

First, I have some follow-up questions from when we first talked about your educational experiences.

35. What is the highest grade or level of schooling that you have ever completed either in the United States or in another country?

[Use the options below ONLY if needed to follow up on their response for clarity. For example: It sounds like you took some college courses, but you don’t have a degree, is that right? OR: It sounds like you have a teaching degree from your home country; is that correct?]

• 8th grade or less

• 9th-12th grade, no diploma

• High school graduate or General Educational Development (GED) completed

• Technical or trade school

• Some college credit but no degree

• Associate degree (AA, AS)

• Bachelor’s degree (BA, BS, AB)

• Graduate or professional degree

• Other [please specify]: __________

[If some college] What subjects did you take courses in?

[If any degree] What was your major for the highest degree you have?

36. [If high school graduate or above] Are you currently enrolled in a degree program at a college or university?

If yes: What are you studying?

Now, I’m going to ask you some questions about the people in your household.

37. How many children ages 14-17 live with you in your household?

[If any]: In what ways, if any, do they help with your child care?

38. [IF NOT KNOWN FROM EARLIER DISCUSSION] How many adults 18 years or older live with you in your household?

39. What is your current marital or relationship status?

40. Do you own the home where you care for children?

Now, I’m going to ask you some questions about your health.

41. Would you say that in general your health is: [Read the responses below]

Excellent

Very good

Good

Fair

Poor

42. Thinking about the last 30 days (e.g., [GIVE APPROXIMATE DATE RANGE]), how many days did you feel sick or in pain?

• Number of days

• None

43. Thinking again about the last 30 days, has there been a time when your mental or physical health has affected the way you are able to care for children?

[If yes]: Has it been your mental health, physical health, or both?

• If you feel comfortable sharing, what ways has it affected the way you care for children?

44. Are you covered by any kind of health insurance or health care coverage?

45. In what year were you born?

My last set of questions for you is about your finances.

46. In the last 3 months, how often have you found it difficult to pay your bills? READ THE RESPONSES BELOW

Never

Once in a while

Somewhat often

Very often

47. In addition to caring for children, do you do any additional work for pay?

[If yes]: What kind of work is this?

48. Do you currently receive financial or in-kind assistance from any government programs for families, such as cash assistance for families, cash assistance for disabilities, housing assistance, food stamps, [if school-age children] or free or reduced-price lunch for your own children?

[If not specified]: Which programs are you receiving assistance from?

[If no]: If you feel comfortable sharing, what are your reasons for not receiving any public assistance?

F. Photo and audio journals

As we mentioned the first time we spoke about the study, we will ask you to do two kinds of activities to tell and show us about the care you offer children. One is to take photos of your day-to-day life as a caregiver. The other is to make an audio journal where we will ask you to record your stories and reflections about the care you offer children and families. For the last part of this interview, I’d like to give you a brief overview of this task and set up our next call, where we’ll go over this in more detail.

Your photo and audio journals would be shared with our research team through a cell phone that we will lend to you. For this study, we think that photo and audio journals are a good way to learn about your perspectives and experiences taking care of children. It’s also a way for you to share the things that are important to you that may not always get recognized.

For the photo journal, we are asking you to take two photos a week for 4 weeks. For the audio journal, we are asking you to record two entries each week during the same 4-week period as the photos. These can be short; no need to record anything longer than 5 minutes. For completing these journals, we would send you a $100 gift card.

For both the photo and audio journals, we’ll give you a set of questions or requests to help you decide what you want to show or say. There are no right or wrong responses.

One important note, about the photos: we cannot include any photos that have the children you care for in them until their parent or guardian has given written permission that this is okay and, if their parent or guardian gives permission, until children have also said this is okay (if they are old enough to understand). We will send you a flyer and a form and ask you to give them to all of the families of the children in your care. These materials explain the photos and ask them to indicate whether they give permission for their child to be in photos or not, and to sign the form. There is also a form that any child age 10 or older will need to sign.

Another important note about the phone we’ll send you for this activity: it will have software that can be used to track the location of the phone and to remotely access the phone. However, we have the following policies and procedures in place to protect your privacy:

• Only authorized study team members can use this software. This software only works when the phone is turned on and unlocked.

• Location tracking has a time delay (we cannot see where the phone is located at the time when we look this up, only where it was recently). It also only provides a general area where the phone is (not an exact location).

• We will only use this software to help you locate the phone if it is lost, or if you need help operating the phone.

• If the phone is permanently lost or stolen or not returned, we will use this software to remotely delete any data on it. Even if that is not possible (because the phone is turned off or locked), someone can only access the phone by using the password or by resetting the entire phone, which would delete any remaining data. We will also turn off the phone’s cellular account so no one can make calls using the phone.

Do you have any questions about the photo or audio journal activities? (Answer questions.)

Do you feel comfortable doing these activities, with our support? (If unsure, try to address any concerns and offer to give them a few days to think about it. But, if they firmly don’t want to do it, say that is okay, and ask if they would be willing to participate in a second and final interview.)

G. Community member interviews

(Interviewer’s note: Although we will only interview one community member per provider, we’d like to ask the provider to ask up to three candidates, which will give us backups in case the first candidate isn’t available and limit the need for back and forth with the provider. We are prioritizing formal sources of support and the most important sources of support, although if this interview occurs late in the data collection period, the study team might have decided to interview more people who are informal sources of support. So, when identifying the candidates, start with the people the provider identified as most important and focus on formal sources of support, unless the study team has decided otherwise.)

We would also like to talk to one of the people who gives you information or support, whom we are calling community members. This person will need to be at least 18 years old. Our interview with this person would be one-half hour. Our conversation with them will be private, just like our conversations with you. We won’t tell them anything you told us, other than confirming basic information about the support they provide you. That’s the only activity we would ask them to do for this study, and they will receive a $25 gift card for their participation.

Right now, we’d like to take a few minutes to figure out which community members to talk to about the study. Although we’ll only interview one person, we’d like to consider as many as three people in case someone isn’t available or doesn’t want to talk to us. Do you think [NAME 1, NAME 2, and NAME 3] would be good people to talk with? (Once provider has agreed on the three candidates:) Great, we’ll talk about next steps for these community member interviews in a minute.

Do you have any questions about the community member interviews? (Answer questions.)

• (If more than one community member candidate and provider wants us to talk to, or not talk to, a particular community member, explain why we’d prefer to have flexibility to reach out to anyone who is willing to participate, but ultimately defer to the provider’s preferences about who to talk to.)

• (If provider does not want us to talk with any community members, explain the importance of hearing their perspective, emphasize the privacy of the interview, and ask if they could at least talk to the community members–or let us try–so the community members can decide. If they insist, then accept this decision.)

H. Family member interviews

We’d also like to talk to two family members [can name children’s family members here]. The family members would be from different families and will need to be at least 18 years old. (If caring for one child, can just say we want to talk to a parent or guardian of that child.)

Our interviews with each of them would be 1 hour. Our conversations with them will be private, just like our conversations with you. We won’t tell them anything you told us, other than confirming basic information about your care arrangements for their child. That’s the only activity we would ask them to do for this study, and the family members will receive a $50 gift card for their participation.

We’ll talk about next steps for these family member interviews in a minute. Do you have any questions about the family member interviews? (Answer questions.)

• (If more than two family member candidates and provider wants us to talk to, or not talk to, a particular family member, explain why we’d prefer to have flexibility to reach out to anyone who sends a form back, but ultimately defer to the provider’s preferences about who to talk to.)

• (If provider does not want us to talk with any family members, explain the importance of hearing their perspective, emphasize the privacy of each interview, and ask if they could at least give the form to the family members so they can decide. If they insist, then accept this for now–study team will discuss and we will consider whether to ask again later.)

I. Next steps

[IF PROVIDER SAID YES TO PHOTO AND AUDIO JOURNALS]

Next, I would like to schedule a call so we can go over these activities in more detail, including walking through the steps to take a photo and record an audio journal and answering any questions you have. We’ll ship you the phone that we’ll lend you, plus some handouts and materials, so that you have them by the time we have this call and you can practice using the phone when we talk. Then your 4-week period would start, where you would take the photos and record the audio journals. Toward the end of that 4-week period, we will schedule our final interview with you.

When we send you the study phone, we will also send you a packet of information including a flyer that you can share with family and community members. On the next call, we’ll discuss getting permission from family and community members for us to contact them for an interview. We will also send you a $75 gift card for completing this interview today.

The phone we are going to send you is an Android phone. To help us understand how comfortable you are using this kind of phone, I have a few quick questions for you:

• Do you have a cell phone? If so, what kind is it–iPhone, Android, or not a smartphone? If a smartphone, how often do you use it to take pictures, and how comfortable do you feel doing that? Okay, great, we will go over how to use the phone in our next call.

• What is your mailing address so we can send you the phone? (Record address: _________________________________)

• We normally send the phone and materials by FedEx, and the package would arrive within 2 days of us sending it. Do you have any difficulty receiving FedEx packages? For example, is your address accessible for deliveries, or is package theft a problem in your neighborhood [If any issues, find out if there’s a particular way they prefer to receive packages another delivery service or pickup location.]

• What days and times would work best to have our call? The call should take 1 hour at the most (schedule call for date/time that works best for them–aim for about 3-4 days later so there is time for them to receive phone/materials; later is okay if needed but try not to schedule it too far out.)

• How would you like me to remind you about the call–by texting, emailing, or calling you?

Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me today. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions or concerns. Otherwise, I look forward to meeting with you soon to talk more about the photo and audio journals.

[IF PROVIDER SAID NO TO PHOTO AND AUDIO JOURNALS]

For the next steps, I would like to mail you a $75 gift card for completing this interview today and some flyers that you can share with the family and community members who might be interested in participating in an interview. What is your mailing address? (Record address: __________________________________________________)

The next activity we are asking you to participate in is a second 90-minute interview. We will be able to send you a second gift card for $75 for that interview as well. What days and times would work best for that call? (Schedule call for date/time that works best for them–aim for 1 week later so there is time for them to receive the materials and reach out to family/community members.)

In addition to the flyers for family and community members, the materials we send you will include copies of a family contact form and a community member contact form, which is a way for you to record who has given their permission for us to contact them for an interview and for you to share their contact information with us. Between now and our next interview, would you mind talking to the family members of the children in your care about the study and [community members previously decided on] and ask if they will give you permission to share their contact information with us? You can fill out these forms so you have all this information in one place, and then you can give this information to us over the phone during our next interview.

Once we receive the contact information from you, we’ll select two family members (if caring for children from one or two families, just say we’ll contact those family members) and one community member. We’ll contact them to discuss the study and answer any questions they have, confirm their interest in participating, and then schedule the interview with them. By sharing their contact information, they do not have to participate.

Please feel free to answer any questions the family and community members have about the interviews, since they might feel more comfortable talking with you first. But, please also let them know that when we talk to them, we can answer any questions they have.

Thank you again for taking the time to talk with me today. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions or concerns. Otherwise, I look forward to talking with you on [DATE] at [TIME OF INTERVIEW #2] for our next interview.

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