Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts Children’s Roundtable Summit November 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

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

tracking child welfare outcomes

rate of referrals/ substantiated referrals reentry to care home-based services vs.

out of home care permanency through reunification, adoption, or guardianship

counterbalanced indicators of system performance

use of least restrictive form of care length of stay positive attachments to family, friends, and neighbors stability of care

Source: Usher, C.L., Wildfire, J.B., Gogan, H.C. & Brown, E.L. (2002).

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

Measuring Outcomes in Child Welfare. Chapel Hill: Jordan Institute for Families,

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

three data views

entry cohorts point in time data exit cohorts

January 1, 2008 the view matters…

How long do children stay in foster care?

July 1, 2008 December 31, 2008

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

Barbara Needell [email protected]

510 290 6334 CSSR.BERKELEY.EDU/UCB_CHILDWELFARE

Needell, 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:

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

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