One hundred and ninety ACS managers, supervisors, and caseworkers volunteered to use the laptops in the pilot test. Of those 190, 135 caseworkers and supervisors from the William Street and Staten Island field offices participated in the assessment. All participants received training prior to deployment and all received the same model and configuration of laptop. Prior to receiving the laptops, the volunteers also received a survey to establish a baseline concerning their attitudes and work practices against which to compare a similar post test survey’s results. They did not, however, receive special instructions on how to employ the devices in their work.

Assessment data came from CPS workers and supervisors in workshops, interviews, baseline and follow-up surveys of laptop users, and from the CONNECTIONS system. Entries into the CONNECTIONS database were collected from the twelve week period prior to and during the test period. In addition, the CTG project team participated in meetings and conference calls with ACS and OCFS staff to discuss the deployment and use of the laptops. Taken together, the data provide a detailed picture of how the laptops were used, the attitudes of the users toward this way of working, and evidence of impacts on the productivity of the work done during the test period.