Reporting Instructions for Early Childhood Area Funded Family Support Programs Annual Report Matrix utilizing Tool FF Any family support program funded with school ready funds will be required to report the required performance measures as guided in tool FF and as outlined in the annual report matrix. Step One: Select the Proper Evaluation Tool for Your Program to Use Family support programs must first determine which evaluation tool should be completed by their program. A single program would never complete both tools with the same family. Programs that offer long term or intensive, in home services will use the Life Skills Progression Instrument. Programs that offer short term, in home services or group parent education services will use the Protective Factors Survey. If a program offers a group parent education component with their long term, in home family support program to the same families, they will only use the Life Skills Progression Instrument. Do not use both tools. Programs are required to use the correct assessment tool in order for their results to be valid. Examples of long term, in home programs are: Parents As Teachers Examples of intensive, in home programs are: HOPES-HFI Early Head Start Nurse Family Partnership Examples of short term, in home programs are: Food and Nutrition Program Nurturing Program Newborn Welcome Visits Examples of group based parent education are: Storks NEST TIES Demographic Page The demographic page, which is intended to be the cover page for both tools, has both evaluation tools names listed at the top. We want to gather the same demographic information on families participating in every funded family support and parent education activity. This is completed during the initial contact for families that enrolled after July 1, 2008. The demographic page is for the purpose of gathering information on the families as they enroll in the family support program to provide a snapshot of families. It is not used to mark progress or change in the family s status over time.
The demographic page may be completed by the family, the worker or by both parties working together, whichever is appropriate for your program. Any of these questions that you are gathering somewhere else such as your intake form can be taken off the demographic page. You may modify the demographic page as long as you have a reliable method for collecting this data. You may not modify the actual tools (PFS and LSP.) In subsequent fiscal years (beginning July 1, 2009) you will carryforward the enrollment demographics on families that were enrolled during a previous fiscal year but continue to participate in the program. You will not carryforward the number of children served, home visits provided and group parent education services offered. These numbers should reflect the fiscal year and not include services offered in previous fiscal years. It may be helpful to draw a line after question ten. Questions 1 10 are completed at enrollment and provide a profile of families at the time of their enrollment into the program. Questions 11 13 are reported annually based on the actual numbers for the fiscal year. For programs that have a focus or target child but do provide services to the entire family, you would count the other children 0 5 in the family when reporting the number of children served. For participants that are pregnant, single parents with no other children, count the unborn child as one. For example in the household size category you would report a family size of two, number of children served as one. You would never have a household size of one. Be sure to follow the guidance given in Tool FF for reporting the number of home visits provided. You do not multiply the visit by the number of children present. You also do not include attempted home visits. An attempted home visit is a visit where the family support worker went to the home at the previously arranged time but the family was not home. Question 13 is referring to the number of group parent education sessions offered, not the number that the participant attended. Most programs will already be collecting this information in another format and it will not be necessary to use this demographic cover sheet. This is being provided as an alternative to programs that do not have a method for data collection. Life Skills Progression Instrument (LSP) The Life Skills Progression Instrument is completed within the first few visits for families enrolling after July 1. For families that were active prior to July 1 and continue in the program after July 1, you will complete a LSP as soon as possible after July 1. For programs that have already implemented the LSP instrument
during the previous year you do not need to change your schedule of completing the LSP instrument. The LSP is completed at 6 month intervals and at case closing. The Life Skills Progression Instrument that we are using for this purpose is modified from the original instrument. We are only using items (scales) 1,2,3,5,7,11, 20 and 35 for empowerment evaluation purposes. We have three certified Life Skills Progression Trainers in the state that will be able to offer training on how to use the instrument. Please look for their contact information on the ECI website. Programs will need to purchase the Life Skills Progression Instrument book in order to not infringe on the copyright of this manual. The LSP Instrument book may be ordered at Amazon.com and other bookstores. Workers should carefully review the manual. Agencies should have family support program staff practice using the instrument and attempt to achieve a 90% inter-rater reliability. Inter-rater reliability should be tested at least annually and a best practice would be to test every quarter. The LSP is completed by the worker away from the family. Protective Factors Survey (PFS) The Protective Factors Survey is completed at enrollment. The PFS is completed again at the close of services or by June 30 whichever occurs first. The Protective Factors Survey and the Instruction Manual are available at no cost. Workers should carefully review the manual. This survey tool is intended to be completed by the participant. The manual does contain techniques on how to administer the survey if the family has a low literacy level. In cases where the PFS manual and these instructions differ, these instructions prevail. Confidentiality These evaluation tools when completed contain confidential and sensitive family information. You should treat them the same as you do other confidential documents that you maintain on your participants. When not in use, they should be stored in a secure (locked) cabinet or drawer. The ethnicity data element has the potential to be too small of a sample size to allow for reporting without compromising confidentiality. For example if the total population of African Americans in your community is five and your report that you served three African Americans in your program a reasonable person may be able to ascertain the identity of a family(s) participating in your program. In that case you would need to report: Sample size too small to report. ECI Directors will be expected to offer an additional level of quality control services for sample sizes that have the ability to compromise confidentiality.
Completion of Tool FF(A) First Column Insert the name of your family support program including the model. If your program does not follow any recognized model, then insert either model N/A or model program does not follow a recognized model Second Column Insert which of the community plan priority(ies) this program addresses. The priorities are contained in the Annual Report in section III. Third Column Input Measures Insert the dollar amount that this program is being funded with school ready funds separated by category. It will need to align with what is reported in the financial statement. It is also required for the program to report the total cost of providing the service. If the services are being subsidized by other funds including agency funds this should be listed here. Do not include in-kind donations. This helps to provide an accurate picture of the total costs of providing the service. For example on your annual report list: $80,000 School Ready Family Support funds $5,000 School Ready Other funds $9,000 Woodbury County Board of Supervisors cash contribution $2,000 Agency cash contribution $96,000 total operating expenses Fourth Column Output Measures Number of children (ages 0 5) participating in family support/parent education program (unduplicated) Report the number of children that are participating in the program. Unborn children (age 0) are included in this count. Number of families participating in family support/parent education program (unduplicated) - Report the number of families that are participating in the program. Number of home visits completed Report the number of home visits that were provided including visits that took place outside of the home but were similar in nature to the services provided during a visit in the home. Please refer to Tool FF for the definition of home visitation for the proper method to calculate home visits. Number of group parent education meetings offered Report the number of group parent education meetings that were offered. You may include group parent education meetings that were offered and had low to no attendance at the meeting. You do not include group parent education meetings that were planned but were canceled and therefore not offered.
Ethnicity of head of household Report the numbers of individuals that report themselves in one of the categories on the demographic page. You will report each category even if the number you are reporting is zero. Marital status - Report the numbers of individuals that report themselves in one of the categories provided on the demographic page at the time when the demographic page is initially completed. You will report each category even if the number you are reporting is zero. Single would indicate never married. Married indicates a legally binding relationship recognized as a marriage in the state of Iowa. Persons that are widowed are persons that have been legally married and their spouse has died. Persons that are divorced are persons that have been legally married and have completed a process to legally dissolve the marriage. Persons that are separated are persons that have been legally married and have either filed for a temporary separation order or who have filed for divorce but the divorce is not finalized. Partnered means two persons that may or may not be cohabitating but are in a committed relationship with each other but are not legally joined together through marriage. Partnered persons may or may not have children together. Partnered persons are taking an active role of coparenting the children in the household even if they are not biologically their children. Household size - Report the numbers of individuals that report themselves in one of the categories provided on the demographic page at the time when the demographic page is initially completed. You will report each category even if the number you are reporting is zero. An unborn child and mother are counted as a household size of two. Federal Poverty Level Use the household size and income level information on the demographic page to determine the number of families in each poverty level range. Refer to the current U.S. Federal Poverty Guidelines to determine into which poverty level range the family fits. Report the number of families in each category even when the number of families in that range is zero. Educational level of head of household - Report the numbers of individuals that report themselves in one of the categories provided on the demographic page at the time when the demographic page is initially completed. You will report each category even if the number you are reporting is zero. For example on your annual report list: Race/Ethnicity A. 0 Native American or Alaskan Native B. 0 Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders
C. 5 African American D. 10 Multi-racial E. 25 Hispanic or Latino F. 0 Asian G. 30 White H. 0 Other Fifth Column Quality/Efficiency Measures # and % of children, prenatal 5 years old, that are age eligible and screened for developmental delays Report the number and % of children that you or a community partner has screened for developmental delays. Screenings are less formal than an Assessment. Assessments are typically the responsibility of Early ACCESS or the AEA. Screenings can be completed by a health provider, educational setting, family support, etc. You would not include unborn children or children that were not age eligible for screening. For example: Your program serves 90 children, 80 children were screened therefore 89% of children were screened. # of those children screened that were referred to Early Intervention services Report the number of children that were screened (from the measure above) and that your program referred to Early ACCESS or AEA. You do not include referrals that other community partners may have made on behalf of the child. For example: Your program reported that 80 children were screened. Of those 80 children, 5 were referred by your program to early intervention services. # and % of direct service staff with Bachelor s level education or higher (health, human services, or education related field) Report both the number and the percentage of direct service staff that have a bachelors or higher education level in a related field. Direct service staff only includes persons that deliver the service to the family such as parent educators, family support workers or group facilitators. This does not include other support staff such as receptionist or data clerks. Supervisors should not be included unless they have a dual role and also deliver direct services. Do not include in this category persons with a bachelor s degree in an unrelated field such as a business degree. # and % of direct service staff with a Bachelor s level education or higher in an unrelated field. # and % of direct service staff that are Registered Nurses that are not included in either of the above categories.
For example: Your program has a total of 6 direct service staff. 3 direct service staff have a Bachelors degree in a related field. 1 direct service staff has a bachelor s degree in an unrelated field. 1 direct service staff is a RN that does not have a Bachelor s degree. Your report would look like this: 3/6 and 50% Bachelors degree in a related field 1/6 and 17% Bachelors degree in an unrelated field 1/6 and 17% RN # and % of programs that have a national or state credential or have been accepted into the process Report both the # and the % of programs that have earned a national or state credential. At this point we will also include programs that have applied and been accepted into the process such as programs that are now Healthy Families of America affiliates or programs that have been accepted into the Iowa Family Support Credentialing process. Examples of programs with a national or state credential are: Early Head Start, Head Start, FaDSS, Early ACCESS, Healthy Families Iowa (includes HOPES-HFI programs), Healthy Start, Food and Nutrition Program and programs that have been accepted into the Iowa Family Support Credentialing process. For example: Your program is a Hopes Like program that has not completed the Iowa Family Support Credentialing process or become affiliated with Healthy Families America. You report 0 and 0%. Again, don t leave it blank! # of newly enrolled families and # and % of newly enrolled families that meet one or more of the FS eligibility criteria (income at or below 200% FPL, one or more parents with high school diploma or less, and/or one or more children (0-5) have IFSP or IEP) - Report both the # and the % of families enrolled in a long term family support program after July 1, 2011, that meet one or more of the criteria provided on the eligibility self-declaration page. Sixth Column Outcome Measures Outcome measures are only appropriate to be reported on an annual basis. More frequent reporting does not present a complete or accurate reflection of the outcomes being achieved. To calculate the percentage of families that are meeting the outcome measure you will compare the scores of their initial LSP or PFS completed during this fiscal year (July for existing families and at enrollment for new families) to the scores of the LSP or PFS that were completed at case closing or by June 30. If the scores have increased they can be counted toward the percentage of families that are meeting this outcome. For the first two outcomes listed below you would also include families that scores have been maintained at a certain level during the course of the fiscal year.
Families that have participated in a long term program for less than six months would not be considered in calculating the outcomes. Families that prematurely drop out of a program prior to completing a PFS post survey would not be included when calculating the outcomes in column six. You would include those families in the demographic report BUT not the outcomes column. When showing your math in the outcomes column do not include all families served unless they: Completed the short term or group based parent education OR Were served for six months or more in a long term or intensive home visitation program For example, a family scored a 2 on item 3 on the LSP that was completed in July. In June of the following year they scored a 3 on item 3 on the LSP. This family would be counted in the percentage of families showing an increase or maintaining social supports outcome. % of participating families that improve or maintain healthy family functioning, problem solving and communication LSP Items 1 and 2 PFS Items 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 For scoring purposes the LSP is simply the score the worker rated on the five point scale (1/2 points.) Again, to fully understand the intricacies of the rating, workers must carefully read the manual and have opportunities to practice. If families have improved on one scale and not the other, you would calculate them as improving in this outcome area. For maintenance purposes, a family must score at least a four to be calculated toward meeting this outcome. We do not want to include families that have low scores and have not made progress. For scoring purpose of the PFS the score is simply the numerical value assigned by the family. IF fewer than four of the five items were completed, don t compute a score. If 4 or more times were completed sum the items responses and divide by the number of items completed. You compare the average score of the presurvey with the average score at the post survey. Any family increasing their score from pre to post can be calculated as meeting this outcome measure. To include a family for maintenance purposes, they must maintain a score of at least 20. % of participating families that increase or maintain social supports - LSP Item 3 PFS Items 6, 7, 10 For scoring purposes the LSP is simply the score the worker rated on the five point scale (1/2 points.) Again, to fully understand the intricacies of the rating, workers must carefully read the manual and have opportunities to practice. To
calculate this outcome, you will compare the score on scale three at enrollment or around the beginning of the year to the score from the LSP completed toward the end of the year. For families that have made progress, they can be calculated as meeting this outcome measure. For families to be considered maintaining they will need to at least have a score of a 4 or higher. Again, for maintenance purposes we are looking for families that are already doing well in this area. It would be misleading to include families that scored a zero at the beginning of the year, made no progress and scored a zero at the end of the year. For scoring purpose of the PFS the score is simply the numerical value assigned by the family. IF fewer than two of these items were completed don t compute a score. If two or more items were completed sum the items responses and divide by the number of items completed. To calculate if a family can be considered as having met this outcome you will compare their average score on these items on their pre survey to the average score on their post survey. To calculate if a family that has maintained in this area and can be considered to have met this outcome they would need to have a score of at least 15 and maintain that from pre to post. % of participating families that are connected to additional concrete supports- LSP Items 11, 20, 35 PFS Items 8, 9 and 11 For scoring purposes the LSP is simply the score the worker rated on the five point scale (1/2 points.) Again, to fully understand the intricacies of the rating, workers must carefully read the manual and have opportunities to practice. If families increase on one scale of the three scales, you may include them as meeting the outcome measure. For scoring purpose of the PFS a reverse score is used for these three items. Use the following transformation: A score of 1 is rescored t7, a score of 2 is rescored 6, a score of 3 is rescored 5, a score of 5 is rescored 3, a score of 6 is rescored 2, a score of 7 is rescored 1. IF fewer than two of these items were completed don t compute a score. If two or more items were completed sum the items responses and divide by the number of items completed. % of participating families that Increase knowledge about child development and parenting LSP Item 7 PFS Items 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 For scoring purposes the LSP is simply the score the worker rated on the five point scale (1/2 points.) Again, to fully understand the intricacies of the rating, workers must carefully read the manual and have opportunities to practice
For scoring purpose of the PFS a reverse score is used for items 12, 14, 16. Use the following transformation: A score of 1 is rescored t7, a score of 2 is rescored 6, a score of 3 is rescored 5, a score of 5 is rescored 3, a score of 6 is rescored 2, a score of 7 is rescored 1. For items 13 and 15 the actual score is used. Because of the nature of these items, the developer does not recommend calculating a subscore. A median score should be used to assess your progress. To calculate a median score, you are calculating the mid-point in the data range. For example: Item 12 - score 6 transformed to 2 Item 13 score 7 Item 14 score 2 transformed to 6 Item 15 score 6 Item 16 - score 2 transformed to 6 Data range is 2 7, for a median of 5 % of participating families that improve nurturing and attachment between parent(s) and child(ren) LSP Item 5 PFS Items 17, 18, 19, 20 For scoring purposes the LSP is simply the score the worker rated on the five point scale (1/2 points.) Again, to fully understand the intricacies of the rating, workers must carefully read the manual and have opportunities to practice For scoring purpose of the PFS the actual score is used for these four items. IF fewer than three of these items were completed don t compute a score. If three or more items were completed sum the items responses and divide by the number of items completed. For More Information ECI Area Directors May Contact: Debra Scrowther Iowa Department of Management/ECI Office State Capitol, Rm. 13 Des Moines, IA 50319 515-281-4537 or Debra.Scrowther@iowa.gov