Special SLAQ Situations
- I am working with a large number of sites (e.g., over 100 schools). Do I need to complete a separate questionnaire for each site?
- I am delivering a training to a group of sites and am not planning to follow-up with each site or work directly with each site to implement PSE change. Do these sites still need to do a SLAQ?
- What if I’m working at the organizational level (e.g. a district), and not specifically at the site?
I am working with a large number of sites (e.g., over 100 schools). Do I need to complete a separate questionnaire for each site?
This depends on the nature of your work at the site itself. Is your engagement with the site "on-the-ground", working with site staff to implement PSE change? If the answer is yes, annual SLAQs should be conducted for each site. However, we realize that may not be feasible when we're talking about very large numbers of sites and can brainstorm with you some potential alternatives (e.g., sampling) and strategies for facilitating SLAQ completion. Please contact us about your particular situation, so that we can work with you directly.
I am delivering a training to a group of sites and am not planning to follow-up with each site or work directly with each site to implement PSE change. Do these sites still need to do a SLAQ?
If you are not engaged directly with each site, a SLAQ is not required. However, a training is an excellent opportunity to request that SLAQs be completed. One possibility would be to build in some additional time at your training so that site staff in attendance can at least begin to complete the SLAQs while they are there in person. This will also help ensure that you are assessing baseline, before they go on to make changes based on your training, and we recommend that you reach out to the same group of sites the following year and ask that they re-assess.
If you go on to provide assistance in implementing PSE changes for any of the sites that received your initial training, those sites are then required to conduct the SLAQ annually.
What if I’m working at the organizational level (e.g. a district), and not specifically at the site?
If you are working with a school district to help revise policies, implement district-wide Farm-to-School procurement, etc., beginning in FFY 24, you and your district partners will need to complete the School District Organizational Assessment Questionnaire (OAQ). OAQ resources can be found in several places:
- For paper and PDF versions of the questionnaire, go to the OAQ Questionnaire subpage
- For the online Survey 123 version of the OAQ, go to the OAQ Questionnaire subpage
- For FAQs on the OAQ assessment, go to the OAQ FAQs on the Assessment Questionnaire website.
If you are primarily working at the organizational level for a non-school setting (e.g. an early care coordinating agency, YMCA headquarters, grocery store association) and not working with the individual ECE sites, OST programs, or stores at this time, neither an OAQ or a SLAQ is required.
For any of the organizations you are currently partnering with, if you decide later on to also implement site-level PSE interventions, the SLAQ would then become required. You may find it helpful to optionally use the SLAQ to identify areas for future PSE work. If there are opportunities to recommend or request that sites complete the SLAQ district-/organization-wide, this could be a mechanism for making sure SLAQs are collected and available for both needs assessment and evaluation purposes.
If you are uncertain about which assessments are required or recommended, please contact the SLAQ team to confirm whether SLAQs are needed in your situation.