How will the information we provide in the Readiness Assessment be used? Who will see our responses? 

While the T3C team at the Texas Center for Child and Family Studies will see all responses, you will not be asked to provide any information that could identify your organization, so we will not be able to link you to your responses. A team from the Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing at the University of Texas at Austin helped us build the assessment in the online platform and will also be able to access all information entered in the assessment, but they have no role in reviewing any responses or analyzing any data, and they are subject to strict confidentiality protocols. 

Nobody at DFPS, HHSC, the SSCCs, other state agencies, or other provider agencies will know how your specific organization answered the questions. We take your privacy seriously and will do everything we can to ensure that your individual responses are not shared with anyone. 

Who should complete the Readiness Assessment? What information do we need before we start? 

The Readiness Assessment will ask you in-depth questions about your organization, so it needs to be completed by someone in a leadership role with extensive knowledge of your operations and programs. It might even be useful for multiple people to complete it together so that staff with different areas of expertise can give input, but make sure only one person actually submits the assessment. The assessment will ask for information reflecting where your organization is currently, not where you plan to be in the future. When a question asks if a practice/policy is followed “throughout your organization,” this refers only to the part of the organization that will host that specific service package (CPA or GRO). 

For each T3C package you want to complete a Readiness Assessment for, you will need to have information about your current operations in these domains on hand:

• Details about your services, programs, and contracts, including: Therapeutic services and processes
• Service planning
• Respite care
• Normalcy
• Family outreach
• Aftercare
• System coordination
• Treatment model(s) 
• Continuous Quality Improvement/Quality Assurance efforts, including logic models
• IT system information 
• Staff positions (employment or contract) and trainings
• Staff-to-child ratios

When designing the Readiness Assessment, we tried to minimize having to answer the same questions more than once, but if you are completing an assessment for multiple packages, you may be asked to answer questions that are the same or similar to ones that you answered in other sections. Pay close attention – there may be small but important differences in questions that seem alike! 

What package(s) should we complete a Readiness Assessment for? 

Your organization should complete at least one Readiness Assessment for a package you plan to offer when T3C is implemented. If you are applying for any CPA packages, you must complete the Readiness Assessment for the CPA Basic Child Care package in addition to whatever other specific packages you want to assess your readiness for. 

How long will the Readiness Assessment take? 

The time investment will depend on how many packages you plan to complete an assessment for. We think that you should budget 30-60 minutes per package, but that could vary depending on the package and on how much of the information you have available at your fingertips when you start. After you start the assessment, you can stop anytime and come back later to pick up where you left off. 

How do we interpret the summary report we get back at the end of the Readiness Assessment? 

When you finish your assessment for each package, you will see a table that summarizes your responses to each item. The response options for each item will be highlighted in green, yellow, or red, and you’ll be able to see what your response was. If your response corresponds to the green answer option, you’re already meeting T3C requirements for that item for that package; yellow means that you are partially meeting the requirements; red means that you are not yet meeting the requirements. Use the DFPS Blueprint for guidance on how to increase your readiness in the areas where you are not currently meeting requirements. 

Who do I contact if I have questions or need help? 

If you need assistance, email your questions to info@t3cready.org and we will get back to you. 

Critical instructions on how to take and use the assessment, as well as the password to access the assessment are included in the video above.