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Category: Project

Description: Accurate and ongoing surveillance of the incidence of child maltreatment and related risk and protective factors can help shape prevention and intervention efforts. One promising approach to capturing this information is by linking local, state, or federal administrative data, such as those from child welfare, health, social services, education, and public safety agencies. The goals of the Child Maltreatment Incidence Data Linkages (CMI Data Linkages) project are to (1) identify sites that are using linked administrative data to examine child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors and (2) support the sites in scaling or enhancing those linkages. The project team will provide selected sites with access to experts to help solve any challenges and to support a collaborative learning network that facilitates communication and information sharing. Through the design and execution of a multisite feasibility study, the project team will also examine factors that promote or impede the scaling and enhancement of integrated administrative data. These factors may include state and local contexts, resources, organizational capacity, peer support, training, and existing infrastructure. The study aims to inform ACF in their efforts to carry out ongoing, accurate, and timely surveillance of child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors. Two overarching research questions motivate the feasibility study: 1. What are promising methods or practices, within and across the selected sites, for linking administrative data informative to the incidence of child maltreatment and related risk? 2. What contextual and organizational factors promote or impede enhancement or scaling of existing data linkages? The project team’s plan is to conduct semi-structured interviews and administer a brief questionnaire with key respondents from the project’s six partnering sites. Additionally, the project team will gather and review documents from these partnering sites as well as take notes and extract lessons learned from site consultation and participation in the cross-site learning network. Together the data gathering activities will inform ACF about the practical feasibility of leveraging administrative data linkages and/or innovative analyses to gain a better understanding of child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors. To illuminate the promising approaches and challenges within and across sites, the project team will examine the sites’ data-linking methods and results, history and quality of partnerships with agencies/organizations for accessing administrative data, activities to link and analyze data, organizational capacity, and budgeted and incurred costs, where possible. This project began in October 2017 and is overseen by the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, in partnership with the Children’s Bureau (CB).