Beginning in March 2008, Washington State University’s Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) will be conducting a survey of youth in foster care for Children’s Administration (CA) and the Braam Oversight Panel. The purpose is to gather information from youth in foster care about their experiences with the foster care services provided by Children’s Administration.

Participation is voluntary, and if a youth is contacted but does not want to participate it will not be held against them. However, participation is crucial to the survey’s ability to accurately represent the opinions of all youth age 15 to 18 in foster care in Washington State. To encourage participation, respondents’ names will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win one of eighteen cash gifts of $100 each (three per region) after having completed the survey.

All information will remain confidential and no personally identifying information will be shared with anyone else, including the Braam Panel and Children’s Administration. All survey answers will be combined with those of other survey participants so that individual answers cannot be identified in the results.

The interview will take between 15 and 30 minutes. If the interviewer calls at an inconvenient time, they can make an appointment to call again at a better time.

We encourage foster youth to speak with the interviewer when she/he calls, and we urge foster parents to allow youth the space and privacy needed to speak with the interviewer in confidence.

Survey results will be used to improve the services provided to youth in foster care. Results will be posted this summer at the CA website: http://www.dshs.wa.gov/ca.

If you have questions about the survey, please call SESRC at 1-800-833-0867 and ask to speak with the Braam youth survey coordinator, or email SESRC at sesrcweb6@wsu.edu