Summary
In October 2022, the following updates were rolled out to align with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements and to maintain consistency between SNAP-Ed and Extension reporting in PEARS:
- Program Activity Updates – General Information
- Program Activity Updates – Demographics
- Project Updates (SNAP-Ed Only)
- Languages Update
- Survey Updates – Demographic Questions
Please see the sections below for details about each change. These updates will affect your organization once reporting for 2023 opens in PEARS. Since each organization determines their own open and close dates for each reporting period, please check with your administrators to find when your organization will be affected.
Additional updates are planned for the coming months to adjust for new reporting requirements and to maintain consistency throughout the site.
Program Activity Updates - General Information
Prior to the 2023 reporting year in PEARS, the Method used to deliver this program field included a drop-down list with four options: Face-to-face, Webinar / online, Mix of online and face-to-face, and Other. Only one option could be selected. The delivery method selected did not affect other fields on the form.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, an updated list of three delivery method options is displayed in a series of checkboxes: In person; Virtual, live on line; and Virtual, self-directed & interactive. Multiple options can be selected. The delivery method(s) selected affect the site field and sessions section (more information provided below.)
Previously in PEARS, the Site field was always required for program activity records.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the Site field will be optional for virtual activities.
If one of the delivery methods selected is In person, site will be required.
If the delivery method(s) selected only include Virtual, live online or Virtual, self-directed & interactive, site will be optional.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new organization setting will be added: Always require program activity site. By default, the setting is disabled. If the setting is enabled, site will always be a required field for program activities, regardless of the delivery method selected.
For more information about Organization Settings, see the following documentation: Manage Organization Settings, Fields Available to Manage
Previously in PEARS, the same session data was collected, regardless of the delivery method listed. A toggle allowed users to identify sessions that included IM (Interactive Mutimedia).
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, different sets of session data will be collected depending on the delivery method selected.
- If one of the delivery method(s) selected includes In person or Virtual, live online, the existing set of session data will be collected for any sessions that correspond to these delivery methods.
- If one of the delivery method(s) selected includes Virtual, self-directed, a new set of data will be collected for any sessions that correspond to this delivery method.
- If Virtual, self-directed and one of the other delivery methods is selected, both the existing session fields and the new session fields will be included.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the IM toggle will be replaced by a toggle to track which sessions are virtual. If Virtual, live online is the only delivery method selected, the virtual option will be toggled on (green) for all sessions by default.
Program Activity Updates - Demographics
Previously in PEARS, SNAP-Ed collected age data in combination with gender data. SNAP-Ed categories reported for age included: Less than 5 years, 5 – 17 years, 18 – 59 years, and 60 years or older.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the following updates will affect SNAP-Ed data collection for age:
- Gender and age will be collected separately for SNAP-Ed.
- Subcategories will be added for the 5 – 17 age group: 5 – 7 years, 8 – 10 years, 11 – 13 years, 14 – 17 years. These subcategories will be optional within PEARS and should be populated if data is available.
- The 60 years or older category will be replaced with a new pair of categories: 60 – 75 years and 76 years or older.
- Two additional fields will automatically calculate the Total Youth and Total Adults based on data reported in the corresponding categories.
- Two new categories will be added: Prefer not to respond and Unknown.
Previously in PEARS, Extension categories available for reporting age included: Less than 5 years, 5 – 17 years, Total youth, 18 – 29 years, 30 – 59 years, 60 years or older, Total adults, Prefer not to respond, and Unknown.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the 60 years or older category will be replaced with a new pair of categories: 60 – 75 years and 76 years or older.
Previously in PEARS, SNAP-Ed collected gender data in combination with age data. SNAP-Ed categories reported for gender included: Female, Male, and Unknown.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year for SNAP-Ed, gender and age will be collected separately. Prefer not to respond and Non-binary will be added as categories for SNAP-Ed data collection. Starting in the 2023 reporting year for Extension, Non-binary will be added as a category for data collection. The same set of categories will be used to report gender for both SNAP-Ed and Extension:
Project Updates (SNAP-Ed Only)
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new field will be available to collect project data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The Project name field will be included in the following modules for SNAP-Ed reporting:
Program Activities
Indirect Activities
PSE Site Activities
Social Marketing Campaigns
In the Program Activities modules, the field will be listed on the SNAP-Ed Custom Data page. In the other modules, the field will be listed on the General Information page.
Project name is a required field and will allow users to select one option. The project name field will be listed for SNAP-Ed records only.
Each organization can customize the projects shown in the drop-down list. See the Project List section below for more details.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the Project name field will be available to collect project data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements. Each organization can customize the list of projects shown in the drop-down field.
Organization Administrators and Programming Managers can create and manage the list of project names via the Manage Lists admin page.
Each project can be added to the drop-down list for specific modules (Program Activities, PSE Site Activities, or Social Marketing Campaigns). Check the box next to each module that should include the project name in the drop-down list. All projects will be included in the project name field in the Indirect Activities module.
For more information on managing lists within PEARS, see the following article: Manage ListsLanguages Update
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new field will be available to collect delivery language data in alignment with new reporting requirements.
The Languages field will be included in the following modules:
Program Activities
Indirect Activities
Social Marketing Campaigns
The Languages field will be listed on the General Information page. In the Program Activities module, the field is titled Language(s) used to deliver this program. In the other modules, the field is titled Languages.
Languages is a required field and will allow users to select multiple options. By default, “English” will be selected. If needed, “English” can be removed. Additional language(s) can be selected as needed. The Languages field will be listed for both SNAP-Ed and Extension records.
The list of languages is not customizable at this time. The option Other is included to report any languages not included in the list. If Other is selected, an open text field will allow the other language to be specified.
Survey Updates - Demographic Questions
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new open response age question will be available to collect age data.
The new Age (Numerical) question includes a textbox for participants to enter a numerical value.
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, new survey question types will be available to collect age data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Age (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Years
5-17 Years
18-59 Years
60-75 Years
76+ Years
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, new survey question types will be available to collect age data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Age – Spanish (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Años
5-17 Años
18-59 Años
60-75 Años
76+ Años
Prefiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new survey question type will be available to collect age data in alignment with the new PEARS demographics categories for Extension.
The new Age (Extension) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Years
5-17 Years
18 -29 Years
30-59 Years
60- 75 Years
76+ Years
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new survey question type will be available to collect age data in alignment with the new PEARS demographics categories for Extension.
The new Age – Spanish (Extension) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Años
5-17 Años
18 -29 Años
30-59 Años
60- 75 Años
76+ Años
Prefiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new survey question type will be available to collect age data in alignment with the new PEARS demographics categories for Extension.
The new Age Adult (Extension) question includes the following response options:
18 -29 Years
30-59 Years
60- 75 Years
76+ Years
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new survey question type will be available to collect age data in alignment with the new PEARS demographics categories for Extension.
The new Age Adult – Spanish (Extension) question includes the following response options:
18 -29 Años
30-59 Años
60- 75 Años
76+ Años
Prefiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new survey question type will be available to collect age data in alignment with the new PEARS demographics categories for SNAP-Ed.
The new Age Adult (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
18 -59 Years
60- 75 Years
76+ Years
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, a new survey question type will be available to collect age data in alignment with the new PEARS demographics categories for SNAP-Ed.
The new Age Adult – Spanish (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
18 -59 Años
60- 75 Años
76+ Años
Prefiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, new survey question types will be available to collect age data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Age Youth (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Years
5-7 Years
8-10 Years
11-13 Years
14-17 Years
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, new survey question types will be available to collect age data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Age Youth – Spanish (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Años
5-7 Años
8-10 Años
11-13 Años
14-17 Años
Prefiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, new survey question types will be available to collect age data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Age with Youth Breakout (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Years
5-7 Years
8-10 Years
11-13 Years
14-17 Years
18-59 Years
60-75 Years
76+ Years
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, new survey question types will be available to collect age data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Age with Youth Breakout – Spanish (SNAP-Ed) question includes the following response options:
0-4 Años
5-7 Años
8-10 Años
11-13 Años
14-17 Años
18-59 Años
60-75 Años
76+ Años
Prefiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the Gender question type will be available to collect gender data.
The new Gender question includes the following response options:
Female
Male
Non-binary
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the Gender with self-describe question type will be available to collect gender data.
The new Gender with self-describe question includes the following response options:
Female
Male
Non-binary
- Prefer to self-describe (please specify)
Prefer not to respond
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, the Gender – Spanish question type will be added to collect gender data in alignment with new SNAP-Ed reporting requirements.
The new Gender – Spanish question includes the following response options:
Hombre
Mujer
No binario
Perfiero no decir
Survey data collected with this type of question can be used to auto-calculate Program Activity demographics.
Starting in the 2023 reporting year, most of the existing age and gender question types will no longer correspond to the demographics reporting standards in PEARS. To help ensure that the correct data is collected via new surveys, some survey question type option will have an “OLD — ” prefix added and will be hidden in the following places:
Question Type filters in the survey library
Question Type drop-down list for new custom fields
The following age question type options will be hidden:
Age (Multiple Choice) – Chinese
Age (Multiple Choice) – Spanish
Age (Multiple Choice) – Adult Range
Age (Multiple Choice) – Child Range
Age (Multiple Choice) – Extension
Age (Multiple Choice) – Federal Standards
Age (Multiple Choice) – SNAP-Ed
The following gender question type options will be hidden:
Gender
Gender – Chinese
Gender – Spanish
Gender with Other