State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study (2020-2024)

The State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study aimed to provide novel information regarding connected (linked or integrated) state data that may be leveraged to improve the ongoing and accurate surveillance of child maltreatment incidence and related risk. 

The study examined the extent to which child welfare agencies in 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, connected administrative data on child maltreatment to other data sources and aimed to learn more about states’ practices related to sharing and connecting data. 

The descriptive study aimed to explore research questions including, but not limited to: 

  1. What are the characteristics of states’ data systems of record?
  2. What states have connected data and how are those data used?
  3. What data sources are being connected, and what are the characteristics of the connected data?
  4. How do states link, manage, and govern their connected data?
  5. What are states’ plans for connected data and how are they building capacity?

The study included 3 components: 

  1. A high-level web survey of State Child Welfare Directors (or their designee); 
  2. A more in-depth web survey of a state agency staff person knowledgeable about linked data; and 
  3. Semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of state agency staff. 

This project is led by Mathematica. 

Point(s) of contact: Jenessa Malin, Christine Fortunato, and Elleanor Eng

This study is registered on OSF Registries under the title: State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study

Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under OMB #0970-0594. Related materials are available at the State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study   page on RegInfo.gov.

To access the information collections (E.g. interviews, surveys, protocols), click on View Information Collection (IC) List. Click on View Supporting Statement and Other Documents to access other supplementary documents.

Related Resources

This brief highlights barriers and facilitators to states’ use of connected (linked and integrated) data as reported during in-depth interviews with select state child welfare agency staff that participated in the State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study.

This brief highlights information collected as part of the State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study regarding state child welfare agencies' uses of linked and integrated data.

This brief highlights information gathered from a survey of state child welfare directors regarding linking or integrating child welfare data from July and October 2022.

This technical report describes the study design and methodological information for each data collection activity, including instrument development, constructs addressed, logistics, and response rates, for the State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study.