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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Children's Bureau
| OMB Control No: 0970-0214 Expiration date: 01/31/2010 |
Section IV: Statewide Information System
Section VI: Quality Assurance System
Section VII: Staff and Provider Training
Section VIII: Service Array and Resource Development
Section IX: Agency Responsiveness to the Community
Section X: Foster and Adoptive Parent Licensing, Recruitment, and Retention
Section I: Safety Outcomes for Children
Section II: Permanency Outcomes for Children
Section III: Child and Family Well-Being
Note: The guide has been reorganized so that the systemic factors appear first, to reflect the order in which most reviewers prefer to ask the questions. We have retained original section and item numbers, however, to ensure consistency with other review-related documents, such as the Onsite Review Instrument and Instructions.
Stakeholder interviews are conducted at the local review sites and at the State level during the onsite component of the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs). The purpose of the stakeholder interviews is to collect information for evaluating and rating the outcomes and systemic factors that are examined during the CFSRs.
The review team interviews stakeholders who are representative of the types of organizations and individuals who participated in the development of the State's Child and Family Services Plan, as required at 45 Code of Federal Regulations 1357.15(1). These include representatives of courts, administrative review bodies, children's guardians ad litem, and other individuals or bodies assigned responsibility for representing the best interests of children. Interviews should be limited to approximately 1.5 hours for caseworkers, supervisors, and administrative case reviewers and 1 hour for other respondents. The following core stakeholders must be interviewed:
State Stakeholders
State child welfare director
State child welfare program specialists
State court system representative(s)
Major tribal representatives
State representative(s) of administrative review bodies
Youth being served by the agency
State foster and/or adoptive parent association representatives
Local Stakeholders
Local child welfare agency administrator
Foster and adoptive parent(s)
Juvenile court judge
Law enforcement representative
Caseworker(s) from the local agency
Supervisor(s) from the local agency
Guardians ad litem/legal representatives
Agency attorney(s)
Local representatives of administrative review bodies
Tribal representatives
Youth being served by the local agency
Review teams may interview additional stakeholders at both the State and local levels, as needed. Optional interviewees at the State level may include representatives of the education system, youth service agency, health department, Medicaid program, mental health agency, child welfare advocacy organization, university social work education program, major child welfare initiative or project, or other appropriate stakeholders. Optional interviewees at the local level may include representatives of youth service agencies, major child welfare initiatives or projects, major service providers, mental and physical health agencies, educational institutions (including special education or early intervention coordinators), child and family advocacy organizations, or other appropriate stakeholders.
Administration of the Stakeholder Interview Guide
Background Information:
This interview guide identifies the Core Question(s) to be asked during each stakeholder interview. The identified Core Question(s) listed by item number represent the central theme(s) for each outcome and systemic factor that the reviewer should attempt to address during stakeholder interviews. The ratings that the review team assigns to the outcomes and systemic factors should be based on thorough explanations of and responses to the Core Questions.
Questions pertaining to children in foster care include juvenile justice cases served by the child welfare agency either directly or through a title IV-E agreement.
Reviewers should become thoroughly familiar with the questions in the Stakeholder Interview Guide before beginning the stakeholder interviews. Reviewers should note that stakeholders may provide information out of sequence from the order of the Stakeholder Interview Guide. Reviewers should be familiar with the Statewide Assessment and Preliminary Assessment in order to ensure that the appropriate stakeholders are identified to be interviewed and that adequate information is gathered related to the State under review.
General Instructions:
Determining who is an appropriate respondent or stakeholder: For each Core Question, the Stakeholder Interview Guide lists the respondent or stakeholder groups who are most likely to have sufficient knowledge to respond meaningfully to the item. Reviewers should be careful to pursue issues only with stakeholders who have firsthand knowledge of the issues under review. The information recorded on the Stakeholder Interview Guide, and therefore subsequently used to evaluate the agency's performance, should reflect the input of stakeholders with firsthand, well-founded knowledge of the issues based only on the period under review. (Some stakeholders may offer secondhand experience or express opinions that are not supported by facts or experience; this information should not be recorded on the interview guide.)
Assigning ID numbers: To identify which stakeholders made specific comments, reviewers should assign a number to each stakeholder (or stakeholder group) interviewed. A chart is provided in the front of the guide for recording a stakeholder's name, ID number, and other identifying information.
Recording responses: The Local Site Leaders (Children's Bureau and Administration for Children and Families staff) or their designees (for example, Consultant Co-Local Site Leaders) should record the notes from each stakeholder interview in the appropriate blank spaces, using a separate Stakeholder Interview Guide for each interview. Reviewers may add pages as needed to record notes under each section of the guide. A supplementary page that can be copied for that purpose is included on page 5 of this guide. Reviewers should be sure to record the item number, stakeholder ID number, and stakeholder type along with any responses recorded on the supplemental pages.
Local Site Leaders must turn in the completed Stakeholder Interview Guides to their Team Leader before the statewide exit conference and/or before departing the State at the end of the review week.
How to Use the Questions:
Core Questions: While each individual stakeholder may not be able to answer every Core Question, reviewers should be able to elicit all the needed information from the range of stakeholders interviewed at the State and local site levels. Following each item is a list of possible stakeholders who may be able to address the Core Question(s). Reviewers, however, will need to make judgments about which of the questions they should pursue with each individual stakeholder.
Follow-up Questions: Each Core Question is followed by bulleted Follow-up Questions that reviewers may use to fully explore various aspects of the response to the Core Question. Follow-up Questions need not be answered individually but may be used as appropriate during the interviews. The Follow-up Questions should be seen as a guide rather than a mandate or limit on what reviewers may ask. The Follow-up Questions guide reviewers in determining the most appropriate response to the Core Question(s). Reviewers may rephrase the Follow-up Questions or ask related questions in order to explore the Core Question(s) fully, for example, by asking "why" or "why not," as appropriate.
State-Specific Questions: In addition to the Core Questions and Follow-up Questions, the Administration for Children and Families Regional Office Team Leader, in collaboration with the State and the Children's Bureau, will identify State-specific issues from the Statewide Assessment that need further examination through stakeholder interviews; these will then be listed in the space provided in the guide for this purpose.
