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Nevada Early Intervention

Determining if the Family Survey Response is Representative

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Nevada determined that all children with an IFSP that had received services for six months or longer would receive a survey.

Contracted with the University of Nevada, Reno, Center for Excellence to assist with developing the survey and to disseminate and report on findings.

A task force developed the survey utilizing the NCSEAM and ECO survey tools and an existing Nevada survey.

Survey Background

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Spanish surveys were sent to families indicated through our data system as Spanish speaking.

Background Continued

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Region # of Surveys Sent

# of Surveys Returned

Rate of Return

Statewide 916 210 23%

NEIS Northwest

288 71 25%

NEIS Northeast

47 15 32%

NEIS South 571 124 22%

Survey Rate of Return

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Respondent Total Percent

Mothers 170 83%

Fathers 8 4%

Foster Parent 15 7%

Grandparent 7 3%

Other 5 2%

Respondents in SFY 07

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Region White Hispanic of Any Race

American Indian or Alaska Native

Black or African American

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Asian Two or More Races

Statewide 56% 22% 1% 5% 2% 3% 11%Northwest 76% 11% 1% 0% 1% 4% 7%Northeast 60% 13% 0% 0% 0% 0% 27%South 44% 30% 0% 9% 3% 3% 11%

Race/Ethnicity Breakdown by Regionof Families Responding to the Survey

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Race and Ethnicity Survey Results Compared with State DemographerRegion White Hispanic

of any Race

American Indian or Alaska Native

Black or African American

Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

Two or More Races

State Family Survey

56% 22% 1% 5% 5% 11%

State Demographer 2005

62% 24% 1% 7% 6% N/A

The slight variance of a few percentage points is most likely accounted for by the category of two or more races, which is not a category collected by the State Demographer.

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Created a workgroup to discuss options and incorporated the following for this year:◦ Simplified the survey, the questions were too

wordy and were repetitive.◦ Goal to get survey on one page.◦ Every survey was sent with English on one side

and Spanish on the other, so families could use language most comfortable with.

◦ Created a flyer for direct service staff to help them inform families that the survey was coming.

How to Improve Return Rate

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◦Appealed to direct service providers several times to urge families to complete the survey.

◦Tracked the response rate midway through and sent reminders to programs where response rate was low to remind families.

◦Put identifiers on the envelope (program logo) so families would realize it was not “junk mail.”

◦Had a high percentage of surveys returned for incorrect addresses, sent them back to programs for address correction and resent.

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Instead of comparing the survey return rate with the statewide population demographics, will compare the return rate with the demographics of the early intervention population receiving the survey.

Considering have an online option for the survey. Considering having a personal identifier on the

survey. Overall feel that Nevada is getting a

representative return rate for the survey across all regions.

Future Comparison to Ensure Representative Response Rate

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Nevada’s Contact:Wendy Whipple, Part C Coordinator wwhipple@dhhs.nv.gov

Survey Results can be viewed at Nevada’s Website:

http://health.nv.gov/docs/2007NEISAnnualFamilySurvey.pdf

2008 Survey will be available this Fall