Using Big Data to Study Child Welfare: National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect’s Administrative Data

The proposed workshop will increase awareness and use of administrative data on child welfare in the United States and foster dialog about the research, practice, and policy opportunities provided by such data for child welfare research. The National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) provides multiple large-scale time-series administrative data products offering a variety of detailed information on the U.S. child welfare population. Microdata products can be linked internally or to external resources and NDACAN has undertaken a historic data acquisition effort expanding the available time frame of administrative child welfare data. However, NDACAN data are underutilized in the study of child welfare. The goals of the proposed workshop are therefore to provide participants with information and skills to enable and encourage them to use NDACAN data in their research. These goals include introducing participants to the features and limitations of NDACAN data products, illustrating procedures for accessing, manipulating, and combining public and restricted data, and demonstrating prior uses of administrative child welfare data and facilitating discussion about potential uses. Attendees will benefit from increased awareness of the availability of these large-scale high-quality data and detailed introductions to and practical guidance from NDACAN staff about our three flagship administrative data series: 1) the NCANDS child file which provides data on child protective service history, 2) the AFCARS foster care and adoption files which provide data on children’s experiences in foster care, and 3) the NYTD data which follows youth who age out of foster care without permanent placement. The workshop will also include strategies for data management in the use of administrative data, an overview of how to link the internal data products, and an overview of the available supports and services available through NDACAN for researchers. Moreover, through engaged discussion of prior and potential research, participants will help each other generate ideas and solve problems related to their potential use of administrative data to further the study of child welfare in the United States. This workshop has two target audiences. The first is a set of child welfare researchers who are already regular users of administrative data and may have already used one of NDACAN’s data products. For this audience the objective of the workshop will be introduce these users to the new historic data acquisitions, expose users to new potential uses of the data (such as through internal and external linking), and foster new collaborative relationships between users. The second audience is a set of child welfare and family policy researches who are new to administrative data. For this audience the objective of the workshop is to offer practical aid in accessing and using NDACAN data and to introduce them to the strengths and limitations of using large scale administrative data. The workshop is organized by Erin McCauley who will also serve as the primary speaker (Co-Director at NDACAN and Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco). The panel will also include the 2024-2025 Graduate Research Associate from NDACAN as a speaker.