OPRE

This report from our research partner RTI International describes the child welfare system (CWS) involvement of children and families participating in the third cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW III) baseline data collection. The report addresses the following research questions: • What are the characteristics of children and families in contact with the CWS beginning in 2017? • To what extent are children entering the CWS via pathways other than a maltreatment investigation or assessment? What are their characteristics? • What are the main reasons for child welfare involvement? • What services needs were identified by caseworkers, and of those, which services were received by children and their caregivers? • What levels of contact and satisfaction with caseworkers were reported by children and their caregivers? • What were the children’s experiences of placement changes reported by caseworkers? https://buff.ly/3X8c06e #Data #ChildWelfare

Organizations can set the stage for evidence-informed decisions by building strong #EvidenceCapacity. Evidence capacity encompasses the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and resources that support an organization’s ability to build and use evidence to make decisions and inform its work. Like actors rehearsing a play or athletes practicing their sport, organizations must hone their skills over time to develop #evidence capacity. Learn more about some of the work OPRE does to support the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)'s evidence capacity and some of the lessons we have learned: https://lnkd.in/etPYRYGR

This new brief from our research partner Child Trends shares the challenges that child care and early education (CCEE) researchers experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, changes made to their research projects, and the implications of these changes for CCEE program staff and families and children who use CCEE. Findings are based on discussion with researchers from nine CCEE research projects. Key takeaways include: • Researchers shifted from in-person research activities to virtual or remote research activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Researchers provided examples of how they revised recruitment processes during the pandemic. • Researchers experienced challenges ensuring equitable participation in research studies. • Researchers demonstrated high levels of respect and empathy for research participants, acknowledging the added burdens of research on participants, and on CCEE program staff who may not be formal study participants, during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://buff.ly/4cId5q9 #ECE #ChildCare #COVID19 #research

This report from the Diaper Distribution Demonstration and Research Pilot (DDDRP) and our research partner Westat, with Public Profit, with Public Profit and Dr. Jennifer Randles, outlines the design of the program evaluation. The study design has three main components, each with specific research questions: - The process evaluation: How do Diaper Distribution Pilot grant recipients implement their programs? - The participant experience and outcomes assessment: What are the experiences of the caregivers who participate in the program? - The feasibility assessment: How could we best design a credible and reliable future impact study for the Diaper Distribution Pilot?

At our 2023 Methods Meeting, Addressing Unit Missingness in Social Policy Survey Research, experts discussed the reasons for declining survey response rates, the potential for increased nonresponse bias, and the implications of missing data for human services research, programmatic decisions, and policy decision-making. Meeting presenters addressed research design strategies to reduce nonresponse and mitigate the impact of missing data on resulting estimates. This document from our research partner Westat Insight provides a list of resources for readers who wish to learn more about survey unit missingness, organized as a series of frequently asked questions. https://buff.ly/3AKUUCH #Data #Statistics #Methods

The Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) review announces its 2025 call for research. Help build the evidence base and submit your research about home visiting models for pregnant people and families with young children. Submissions due September 30, 2024. Visit HomVEE to learn more:

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OPRE's RECS and NRCEC conferences support #EvidenceUse by ensuring #research and #evaluation is relevant to policy and practice; building trusted relationship networks between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners; and offering a regularly occurring opportunity to share and discuss findings. Learn more about how OPRE builds bridges to support evidence use through our conferences in our latest blog post: https://lnkd.in/gCTfvwZm

OPRE would like to spotlight Kim Clum, who is a senior social science analyst in OPRE's Division of Economic Independence. Her work focuses on employment and training programs for adults with low incomes, the application of behavioral sciences to human services, and racial and ethnic disparities in human services. https://buff.ly/3AJLiIJ

Most research on access to child care and early education (CCEE) has not accounted for what families search for, prefer, and need. In this video from our research partner Child Trends, four parents describe their experiences finding CCEE. Their stories help bring the four dimensions of the “Multi-Dimensional Framework of Access to Child Care and Early Education” to life: reasonable effort, affordability, supports children’s development, and meets parents’ needs. It shows how important all four of the dimensions are and how parents think about them when finding care for their children. Watch this preview and click to view the full video. <https://buff.ly/48P9nJi> #ChildCare #ECE #ECEchat #FamilyVoices