Introduction
Research Questions
- How do state and local child welfare agencies and their partners collect and use demographic and other data to understand and advance equity in service delivery and child and family outcomes?
- How are communities represented in data collection efforts to promote equity?
This brief summarizes practices related to collecting detailed demographic data—such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression—and other data to measure equity in child welfare. As part of the Child Welfare Study to Enhance Equity with Data (CW-SEED), the project team compiled these data practices from an environmental scan of academic literature, policy documents, and other relevant sources. The brief describes how state and local child welfare agencies and their partners determine what data they will collect, why they will collect these data, and how they will collect and use the data to measure and understand inequities.
Purpose
This brief highlights how demographic and other data can be collected and used to identify and address disparities. The brief provides examples of current and emerging data practices and highlight factors child welfare agencies should consider when implementing these practices. This information about data practices to better understand and improve equity may be helpful for a wide audience of child welfare agency staff and their partners, including agency leadership, frontline staff, research and data staff, as well as advisory councils and community partners.
Key Findings and Highlights
When using existing demographic or other data, collecting new data, or improving how data are collected to understand and improve equity, child welfare agencies could consider the following factors:
The what, why and how — what types of demographic and other data to use or collect, why use or collect the data, and how the data will be collected and used.
How to ensure data reflects the demographic makeup of the local communities and is informed by input from the community.
The feasibility of collecting and using disaggregated demographic data to advance equity, including the resources needed to improve the quality of data, staff training, and data collection instruments, and the management, security, storage, analysis, and reporting of data.
When using data to measure disparity and disproportionality, child welfare agencies should aim to:
Define the populations or groups that will be used in calculations based on the goals of the analysis.
Understand the different measures of disparity and disproportionality and how to perform the calculations.
Use multiple measures to gain a more complete understanding of the extent of the disparity.
Develop a plan, with input from the local community, to use the data and findings to address disparities.
Methods
The CW-SEED project team identified data practices from an environmental scan of published literature and state and federal documents. The environmental scan was conducted the scan in four stages between February and August 2022:
Search: The project team identified relevant academic and grey literature, published between January 2012 and March 2022, using key search terms.
Screen: Trained screeners on the project team reviewed titles and abstracts of each document for relevancy.
Review: These project team staff conducted a detailed review of highly relevant documents using a standardized template.
Synthesize: The project team used thematic and descriptive analysis techniques to summarize key findings.
Citation
Brevard, K., Gemignani, J., Bardin, S., Weigensberg, E. & Bess, R. (2024). The What, Why, and How of Collecting and Analyzing Data to Improve Equity in Child Welfare. OPRE Report #2024-020. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Related Documents
Gemignani, J., Weigensberg, E., Brevard, K., Bardin, S., & Bess, R. (2024). Using Data to Enhance Equity in Child Welfare: Findings from an Environmental Scan, OPRE Report #2024-083. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- CW-SEED:
- The Child Welfare Study to Enhance Equity with Data
- Data practices:
- All activities involving data, including activities that support data planning, collection, access, analysis, reporting, and dissemination
- Disparity:
- The unequal outcomes of one group compared with outcomes for another group
- Disproportionality:
- The underrepresentation or overrepresentation of a particular group when compared with its percentage in the general population
- Equity:
- The consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as people who identify as Black, Latino, Indigenous, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and other people of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons; people with disabilities; people who live in rural areas; and people otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality (from the White House Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, published January 20, 2021)