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:
- What are the characteristics of states’ data systems of record?
- What states have connected data and how are those data used?
- What data sources are being connected, and what are the characteristics of the connected data?
- How do states link, manage, and govern their connected data?
- What are states’ plans for connected data and how are they building capacity?
The study included 3 components:
- A high-level web survey of State Child Welfare Directors (or their designee);
- A more in-depth web survey of a state agency staff person knowledgeable about linked data; and
- 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.