SOURCES SOUGHT
B -- National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW)
- Notice Date
- 3/15/2006
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, Parklawn Building Room 5-101 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20857
- ZIP Code
- 20857
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-06Y009114
- Response Due
- 3/22/2006
- Archive Date
- 4/6/2006
- Description
- The Administration for Children and Families, Division of Child and Family Development, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation through the Program Support Center, Strategic Acquisition Service, Division of Acquisition Management is providing the following sources sought notice to determine the availability of potential small businesses (e.g., 8(a), veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business) to conduct the work necessary to continue the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). NSCAW is the first nationally representative, longitudinal study to examine in detail the outcomes for those children and families that come into contact with the child welfare system and to identify key variables that contribute to those outcomes. Currently, the NSCAW project is being conducted through a contract to RTI International; begun in 1997, the project has conducted four waves of data collection from a sample of 5501 children, drawn from 92 primary sampling units (PSUs) across the U.S., who were the subjects of investigation by Child Protective Services between late 1999 and early 2001 for reports of maltreatment. An additional sample of 727 children was selected from those who had been in foster care for one year during the sample enrollment period, in the same PSUs. Data were collected at baseline and at three follow-up waves (12 months, 18 months, and 36 months post-investigation). A fifth wave of data collection will be completed in 2006. Further information about the NSCAW project can be found at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/nscaw/index.html . The NSCAW work will be conducted over a five-year period. The contractor is expected to manage all aspects of the study, including completing the study design, defining the sample, defining constructs and measures, preparing documents for obtaining approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for data collection, obtaining approvals from internal and external Internal Review Boards (IRBs), and assessing the feasibility of proposed field work strategies. The contractor shall complete preparations for field work (including obtaining cooperation from 100 local child welfare agencies for participation and training an extensive field staff), recruit and train field staff, locate families, obtain informed consent, and conduct data collection. The contractor shall be responsible for locating and tracking a national sample of approximately 5000-6000 children over the course of the study?s designated time period using a variety of data collection methods and will revise the design and measures as appropriate at each data collection point, complete data analyses, and prepare the data from each data collection for archiving as public use data sets. Data analysis will include state-of-the-art statistical modeling techniques, including hierarchical models, growth curve analysis, structural equation modeling, attrition models, and survival models. The contractor shall report their findings to policy, science and practice communities, including publishing in professional journals and presenting at professional meetings. The contract will require longitudinal data collection from (1) children in the child welfare system, (2) their caregivers, (3) their caseworkers, (4) other agency personnel, and (5) review of administrative records. It is expected that at a minimum, two rounds of face-to-face interviews will be conducted with children, caregivers, and caseworkers. In addition to interviews, standardized assessments of educational, emotional, behavioral, and social functioning will be conducted with children. Data may also be collected from schools and from service providers outside the child welfare system. In addition to the face-to-face interviews noted above, other activities may be used as supplements to the interview data or to facilitate data collection at more frequent intervals (including telephone follow-ups, mailed questionnaires, record reviews). Careful tracking of families and children over time to minimize attrition is an essential component for the success of this study. Participating children and families will be those who have had contact with the child welfare system (i.e., upon investigation of abuse or neglect or some other entry mechanism into the system). Obtaining child welfare agency participation is likely to present substantial challenges. Local agencies are highly variable in terms of the resources that they have available for participation in research activities, the policies and procedures that govern whether they will agree to participate, whether they will allow and facilitate access to the children and families served by the system, and as to what type of consent procedures are required for child and family participation. The availability of staff or consultants with extensive knowledge of state and local child welfare agencies will be necessary to facilitate this process. Likewise, obtaining participation from an extremely high-risk and vulnerable group of children and families, will require considerable skill and resources. This is not an invitation for bid, request for proposal or other solicitation and in no way obligates the Government to award a contract. The minimum contractor requirements are: (1) In-depth expertise of the issues related to the child welfare population, including issues around service delivery, service integration, child development, and family functioning, and extensive knowledge of state and local child welfare agencies; (2) expertise in sampling and survey research, as well as several of the following areas: research or evaluation study design and implementation, including experience conducting large, multi-site, longitudinal national studies; experience in working on research or evaluation projects that focus on program outcome assessment issues, as well as educational and social service programs which address these outcome issues; 3) capacity to collect data at multiple timepoints for as many as 20,000 respondents, spread over as many as 100 separate locations across the nation; experience conducting on-site research in social service settings; experience conducting on-site interviews with program staff and parents, as well as experience conducting in-depth and comprehensive assessments of children and families from a wide range of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic populations; research experience entailing social services data collection strategies; 4) experience with the analysis and integration of data with varying levels of quality from multiple sources; expertise in using state-of-the-art statistical modeling techniques, including hierarchical models, growth curve analysis, structural equation modeling, attrition models, survival models; expertise in demography and the analysis of population distributions; writing reports for both a research and policy making audience; and report preparation; 5) expertise related to multi-site, longitudinal research methodology including the statistical approaches and issues related to analyzing very large (and sometimes incomplete) multi-site data sets and expertise related to outcome assessment issues associated with child welfare and related programs, as well as demographic and service delivery trends affecting this population; (6) experience managing a national data collection effort that requires participation by multiple local agencies and expertise in identifying the ethical and legal issues that may arise in the course of collecting data on high risk populations, and the skills and resources required to address such issues; availability of an internal IRB to review the data collection plan, as well as experience in dealing with obtaining approvals from multiple external IRBs at the state and local level; (7) experience in designing data collection strategies, including expertise in selecting data collection strategies from among the various alternatives, based on theoretical and methodological support for each specific data collection strategy (e.g., psychometric issues, previous use of techniques, and relevance for the population from low-income backgrounds and from multiple cultural and linguistic groups); (8) adequate computer/statistical resources, including ability to use CAPI and CATI data collection technologies, access to internet, and the institutional capacity to process, analyze and archive all data, including the capability to support the performance of state-of-the-art statistical modeling techniques; (9) capability to conduct large-scale training programs to prepare field interviewers to conduct direct assessments of children from a wide range of ethnic, cultural, and linguistic populations; (10) experience in the recruitment, training, supervision and management of nationally dispersed field staff, particularly in the areas of client interviewing and child assessments; demonstrated capacity for efficient data collection and quality control associated with multi-site longitudinal studies; ability to quickly mobilize a national cadre of skilled data collectors; experience collecting, processing and analyzing large quantities of data; experience preparing data sets for public use; and preparing written reports for Federal, State, and local agencies; and (11) expertise in collecting, analyzing, and reporting information for purposes of successful dissemination to science and practice communities, including publishing in professional journals and presenting at professional meetings; and 12) experience with documenting and archiving data sets for secondary analysis, knowledge and expertise in the confidentiality issues surrounding data archiving, and experience with end-user technical assistance in accessing and using complex data sets. The contractor must have an accounting system adequate to support a cost-reimbursement type contract. Interested parties having the capabilities necessary to perform the stated requirements may submit capability statements via email by March 22, 2006, 3:00pm local prevailing time, to the Contracting Officer at the following e-mail address: snamoski@psc.gov and pscacquisitions@psc.gov, reference 06Y009114. Capability statements received after the due date will not be accepted. CAPABILITY STATEMENTS MUST DEMONSTRATE THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OUTLINED ABOVE. Capability statements must also include the following information: company name, address, point of contact, phone/fax/email, and business size and status (e.g., small business, 8(a), veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women owned small business). For any questions, please contact Michele "Shelley" Namoski, Contracting Officer at (301) 443-2475 or at the above e-mail address?s. See Numbered Note 25. No facsimile transmissions will be accepted. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE GOVERNMENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE NOR OTHERWISE PAY FOR PREPARING ANY INFORMATION SENT OR THE GOVERNMENTS USE OF THE INFORMATION. Any proprietary information should be so marked. No solicitation is available at this time.
- Record
- SN01006829-W 20060317/060315211917 (fbodaily.com)
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