Using Administrative and Secondary Datasets to Advance Policy and Practice: Lessons from Disability Research

The use of large administrative or secondary datasets has become increasingly common in social work research in recent years. Despite this increasing prevalence, the specific opportunities and challenges of using such datasets is relatively seldom discussed. This presentation aims to provide audience members with insights into the potential uses and challenges of working with administrative or secondary datasets.

We will begin with a very brief overview of our experience with administrative and secondary data in disability research, which include: (a) using Medicaid data in conjunction with personal outcome data for people with disabilities to study the relationship between service utilization and personal outcomes, (b) utilizing merged international datasets to perform comparative disability policy studies, (c) employing child welfare data to look at the experiences of parents and children with disabilities, and (d) building a platform for compiling, reporting, and disseminating national benchmark indicators that can be used to improve autism policies and systems of care. Each presenter will share some of their successful strategies as well as tips on how to address the pitfalls they encountered.

Our workshop will focus on preparing audience members, regardless of their population of interest, to address common challenges in using administrative and secondary data from our perspectives as disability researchers. Of particular interest to many social work researchers may be:

• Tips for merging datasets cleanly
• Balancing usability and comprehensiveness when using administrative data (ie: how to cull large data files)
• How to manage datapoints that may be contradictory (eg: date of birth from multiple sources)
• Strategies for splitting data files to answer specific questions
• Tips for handling inconsistencies in data collection from state to state
• Approaches to learning how to use administrative and secondary datasets
• Ways to present findings to policymakers and laypeople

Our presentation will conclude with ample time for audience discussion. We will plan on a loosely facilitated discussion, which leaves room the audience to respond to our tips, share their own experiences working with administrative or secondary data, and ask questions about some of their own potential research directions. This discussion will aim to be a collaborative, and premised on the notion that attendees have some degree of existing experience and/or interest in applications of administrative and secondary data for social work research, meaning that attendees will have much of their own insight to share.

The 2017 SSWR Conference is an ideal venue for this workshop. As we begin to implement work focused on the Grand Challenges for the field, with sharp focus on Ensuring Healthy Development for All Youth, the thoughtful use of administrative and secondary data is an essential component in moving toward more equitable outcomes, for people both with and without disabilities. Building capacity among a community of social work researchers to effectively utilize administrative and secondary data is particularly important at this juncture in time, and this workshop is designed to assist in driving the development of such a community of social work researchers.