title: It's not as simple as it sounds: Problems and solutions in accessing and using administrative child welfare data for evaluating the impact of early childhood interventions.
abstract: In recent years, there has been increasing interest in using administrative data collected by state child welfare agencies as a source of information for research and evaluation. The challenges of obtaining access to and using these data, however, have not been well documented. This study describes the processes used to access child welfare records in six different states and the approach to combining and using the information gathered to evaluate the impact of the Early Head Start program on children's involvement with the child welfare system from birth through age eleven. We provide "lessons learned" for researchers who are attempting to use this information, including being prepared for long delays in access to information, the need for deep understanding of how child welfare agencies record and code information, and for considerable data management work for translating agency records into analysis-ready datasets. While accessing and using this information is not easy, and the data have a number of limitations, we suggest that the benefits can outweigh the challenges and that these records can be a useful source of information for policy-relevant child welfare research.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Improvement of Child and Family Studies, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-07541, United States.
authors.forename: Beth L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: Brazelton Touchpoints Center - BCH3111, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1295 Boylston, Suite 320, Boston, MA 02215, United States.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ayoub
authors.affiliation: Brazelton Touchpoints Center - BCH3111, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1295 Boylston, Suite 320, Boston, MA 02215, United States.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dym Bartlett
authors.affiliation: Center for the Improvement of Child and Family Studies, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-07541, United States.
authors.forename: Carrie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Furrer
authors.affiliation: Brazelton Touchpoints Center - BCH3111, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1295 Boylston, Suite 320, Boston, MA 02215, United States.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Von Ende
authors.affiliation: College of Education and Human Development, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, United States.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chazan-Cohen
authors.affiliation: Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, MS F-63, Atlanta, GA 30341, United States.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klevens
authors.affiliation: Center for the Improvement of Child and Family Studies, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-07541, United States.
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nygren
keywords: Administrative records; Child maltreatment; Early childhood; Evaluation; Methodology; Randomized control trial