A Survey Idea
I’m playing around with the idea to put up what would be a permanent survey, one that I would do the reporting on about a week after referrals come out.
I’m thinking the questions would be:
- LID
- Age of child
- Gender of child
- Province child is from
- Possibly the orphanage, but some families may not be comfortable reporting that, so probably not.
- NSN or SN
- Check boxes for SN’s (we’d have to compile a list)
I’ll ask about SN’s even for those in the NSN program because some NSN referrals are of babies who have what the CCAA considers to be a minor SN listed.
Questions for SN families only:
- Was your dossier complete when you found your child?
- Were you through review when you found your child?
- LOA
- PA
- TA
The idea is that I could also give some stats this way for the SN families. You won’t see stats from anyone until they have their TA, but I’m thinking this could help out some. Am I asking for the right info? Is there something else we should be asking?
The main purpose of this when I began thinking about it was that we could stop second guessing about trends in ages of children and provinces they are coming from. But, the more I consider, the more data that I see that we could get from it.
Help me brainstorm this so I can get it right on the first go-round. If we decide to add or change something once we’ve started then we have to close that poll and start again with a new one. Not impossible, but I’d really prefer to get it right on the first go-round.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:12 am
That’s a great idea! I would certainly find such a poll very interesting. I think it would be good to know what country the referral has been given to also – in case there should be any trends in age/gender towards certain countries. (unless 99% of RQ inhabitants are American, perhaps that is the case?)
January 20th, 2010 at 9:28 am
i love that idea. each month i do my own gathering of infor from the babies posts…age and province but would love more info…also where do the new families live. thanks RQ.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Thanks RQ, for this exciting project.
Don’t you think, it may be interesting to ask a specific question about “switching from NSN to SN”, even if, I suppose looking at LID date compared to referral date, we can have a rather straight forward guess (on individual entries’ base of course). Just wondering…
But still, I really do think this criteria may be intersting for further cross tabing.
Would be also good to know the age of child asked by PAP when they submited their dossier to CCAA. Could be then compared to age of child referred.
Finaly, what about agency names?
Best regards
January 20th, 2010 at 9:35 am
to lotte :
Of course !!!! Adding in “PAP’s country” is of utmost importance (in my opinion…) for a better worldwide understanding of the whole lot.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:38 am
RQ, this is a genius idea!!! It would be so helpful.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Would it also be helpful to have the date they thought was their LID for years and their “actual” LID? I know last year there were some issues with this, but haven’t heard much lately.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:49 am
GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 20th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
There are two factors currently that can really affect SN timelines for LOA and TA. I don’t know if they are worthy of a question but at least you should know they exist.
They are:
I600 vs I800 – I600 families receive their TA in significantly less time due to the additional (and ever growing) number of steps required for I800 families. This of course definitely affects the number of days to TA (by many weeks/months).
People who switch agencies to be matched with their children. This is happening more and more and it requires steps be performed by both new and old agencies that delay the process from LOI to LOA. Well worth it, but they do affect the general waiting for LOA numbers.
Just food for thought. Love the idea of these polls.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
RQ can you make it so you can check more then one SN because some of our kids have more then one?
Thanks Glen
January 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Boy or girl! :) For SN, whether the referral was from the shared list or the designated list. Also for SN, I’d be interested in seeing LID’s as well, for families that had completed dossiers and were through review. I have heard anecdotally of people with 06 through 08 LIDs being passed over for “minor needs” referrals in favor of giving those referrals to new or very recently logged in (within a few months) clients. I think it would be interesting to take a look at something like that. Although it’s going to be an imperfect measurement since an already LID family cannot switch agencies solely for the shared list, so if their current agency doesn’t do the shared list they need to be matched from a designated list. Still, I think it would be interesting information for people thinking about entering/switching programs.
January 20th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Very good idea! We adopted long ago but I like to stay aware of the current situation as the moderator of a local waiting families group. Descriptive Statistics was my favorite class in grad school.
Best to leave off orphanage. But would be interesting to know if the orphanage has strong support from an organization such as Half the Sky, LWB, etc. Just as a “Yes, No, Don’t Know” check box.
How about country of adoption agency? Perhaps size of agency, as in “Large or Small.”
January 20th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
This is a dandy idea. I have a few suggestions in the name of information…
1. Is there any way to ensure that only one member of a family responds one time?
2. I think it might be helpful for PAPs to know what to expect in terms of SN once home. Possibly, how accurate was China’s medical report? or how satisfied were parents with the initial medical report? Or just were there any undiagnosed medical issues?
3. please don’t think ill of me for suggesting this next thing. I only think parents should be prepared for expense of some SN kids once home. How much out-of-pocket expense has been devoted to special services for kids once home in the first year? e.g. OT, PT, speech, medical, devices, etc. Probably this is hugely affected by coverage but maybe you can see what I am getting at in terms of being prepared for continuing expenses…all worth it by the way. Love the way your brain works, RQ. This would be a fantastic source of key information.
January 20th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
We should ask the orphanage name and get an idea of where IA participation is coming from. Also, I would be curious to see the number of children being fostering to see if the reality exists that the number is children is down or if it is just skewed because of the numbers in foster care.
January 20th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I agree with French Marianne about if and when one switched from NSN to SN. That is a piece of information that I would appreciate.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Great Idea! How about Province? Not sure you could ask SW and agency, but that would be helpful. Thank you for offering to add this!
January 20th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
I have a theory that some SN families wait super-extra long due to paperwork errors. For example, LOA not processed as only 1 returned to CCAA for I-600 family, lost or missing receipt for the LOA, translation problems, and so on. If there are no errors, then things go pretty smoothly and quickly. In the SN group, I think the error rate is pretty high (>20% of families have some complication). However, most agencies tell families about the problems, some do not. How about “Did your LID happen without error?” “Did you receive your LOA without errors?” and so on.
January 20th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
How about if you requested a boy, girl or no preference?
January 20th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Personally, I like the idea about putting the orphanage/SWI because I’d like to know which ones we see the most babies from. I don’t have a problem sharing that information but maybe it could be optional for those who don’t want to share it.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
I am curious, why would one not want to share the name of the SWI/orphanage their child is from?
January 20th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Is it retrospective? And for how many years if so?
January 21st, 2010 at 12:44 am
This is a phenomenol idea!! How about a way to update it. Somethings may not surface right away so you can add them as they occur within a certain period of time.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:23 am
Yes, Earthmama. Excellent point : forster care vs CWI/SWI is a crucial data !
Perhaps could we also ask if some children, referred as NSN, had turned to be minor SN?
January 21st, 2010 at 7:11 am
Maybe also whether or not they were in foster care?
It made all the difference in the world for my daughter (who was places in my arms three years ago today.) It was the best moment of my life. : )
M2I
http://www.MyChineseShamrock.blogspot.com
February 1st, 2010 at 9:04 am
RQ
just thought of an additional point. Knowing whether or not the child referred is the 1st child adopted from China or not may be interesting. In fact, I found out that sometimes it happened that for a second child proposal, a minor SN is referred even though the family was in NSN line…