Barbara Needell, MSW, PhD Center for Social Services Research

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts

Children’s Roundtable SummitNovember 21, 2009

Making Data Informed Decisions(Ramblings from the Left Coast)

Barbara Needell, MSW, PhD Center for Social Services Research

University of California at Berkeley

The Performance Indicators Project is a collaboration of the California Department of Social Services and the University of California at Berkeley,

and is supported by the California Department of Social Services and the Stuart Foundation


counterbalancedindicators of system

performance

permanencythrough reunification,

adoption, orguardianship

lengthof stay

stability stability of careof care

rate of referrals/substantiated referrals

home-based services vs.

out of home care

positive attachments to family, friends, and neighbors

use of leastrestrictive

form of care

Source: Usher, C.L., Wildfire, J.B., Gogan, H.C. & Brown, E.L. (2002). Measuring Outcomes in Child Welfare. Chapel Hill: Jordan Institute for Families,

reentry to care

tracking child welfare outcomes


pointin time

exit cohorts

entry cohorts

data

three data views


the view matters…How long do children stay in foster care?

January 1, 2008 December 31, 2008July 1, 2008

Source: Aron Shlonsky, University of Toronto (formerly at CSSR)




The California Experience

• University/Agency collaboration• Publicly available reports since 1994, online since 2000• Nationally mandated measures (CFSR)• State mandated measures (California Outcomes and Accountability

System—AB636 law since 2001)• Enhancements and additional measures• Dynamic, user defined drill down and breakout functionality• All tables refreshed quarterly• Data over time, for California and each of the 58 counties• Presentations, tools, etc.


public data:putting it all out there

pros: greater performance accountability community awareness and involvement, encourages public-private

partnerships ability to track improvement over time, identify areas where programmatic

adjustments are needed County/County, County/State and Agency/Court collaboration

cons:o potential for misuse, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation o available to those with agendas or looking to create a sensational headlineo misunderstood data can lead to the wrong policy decisionso “Torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything”

Gregg Easterbrook


how’s it working for us?• Publicly available data for child welfare has

become business as usual• State, county, courts and UCB are able to respond

quickly and thoroughly to data abuse/number torturing

• Child Welfare Council formed in 2006 (AB2216) chaired by HHS Secretary Kim Belshe and Justice Carlos Moreno

• Most outcome measures are improving over time




Child Welfare County Data Profiles: Court Data Reports

- AOC has contributed to state (CDSS) funding for this work

- Customized excel reports for judges designed by AOC and CSSR staff

- Data restricted to court dependent children when possible

- County/State and County side by side table and graph comparisons - % change between timeframes

- Presents data from child welfare and court sources (filings)

- Provides links to source reports on CWS/CMS reports website to allow users to further explore data


CSSR.BERKELEY.EDU/UCB_CHILDWELFARENeedell, B., Webster, D., Armijo, M., Lee, S., Dawson, W., Magruder, J., Exel, M., Glasser, T., Williams, D., Zimmerman, K., Simon, V., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Frerer, K., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Winn, A., Lou, C., & Peng, C. (2009). Child Welfare Services Reports for California. Retrieved July 1, 2009, from University of California at Berkeley Center for Social Services Research website. URL: <http://cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare>

Barbara [email protected]

510 290 6334

Presentation Developed by Emily Putnam-Hornstein and Christine Wei-Mien Lou

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Barbara Needell, MSW, PhD Center for Social Services Research