Early in the development of the Survey of Program Dynamics (SPD), the SPD Steering Committee envisioned the survey as composed of two parts: a 60 minute "core"interview administered annually starting in 1998, and a 30 minute child well-being module to be added in 1999. In summer 1997, scarcity of resources (staff and monetary) and the need to focus efforts on ensuring the success of the core SPD in order to meet legislative goals, prevented moving forward with the original plans for a child well-being module. The SPD Steering Committee reexamined resources and determined that a 5-10 minute child focused module was a realistic alternative.

In Fall 1997, the Bureau of the Census solicited input from the SPD Interagency Committee for a 5-10 minute child focused module. A development plan (Attachment A) was circulated, soliciting content and identifying dates for subject matter to be proposed, tested, and evaluated. Solicitation for content was eventually expanded to cover not just the child well being module, but the core SPD instrument as well. In addition to government agencies, input was solicited from data users including those from academia and the private sector. Proposed content was received from the Family and Child Well Being Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Child Trends, Inc. (CTI), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Agriculture, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Manpower Demonstration Research Project (MDRC), the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard University, and the Population Division (POP), and the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division (HHES) of the Bureau of the Census. The SPD Steering Committee decided that all proposed topics be considered for the module and, in accordance with the Census Bureau's pretesting policy, required testing be conducted for appropriate question series.