Facilitators and Barriers to Connected Data Use: Findings from Interviews with State Child Welfare Agency Staff

This brief highlights barriers and facilitators to states’ use of connected (linked and integrated) data as reported during in-depth interviews with select state child welfare agency staff that participated in the SCW Descriptive Study.

• Relationship building for data sharing. Respondents shared that building relationships and trust between the data sharing parties helped facilitate the formation of DSAs and overcome obstacles to data sharing.
• State laws, statutes, and regulations for data sharing. Respondents shared that certain types of laws, regulations, and statutes could restrict data sharing, especially sharing person-specific information, maltreatment information, and identifying information. These prohibitions created barriers to sharing important types of data with partners. However, some respondents discussed laws, regulations, and statutes in their states that supported connected data.
• Technology for connecting data. Technological limitations of some states’ existing data systems hindered integrating or linking data. Respondents reported two types of system limitations that complicated the process of connecting data: (1) challenges in communicating with other systems and (2) challenges with system structure and functionality. However, respondents anticipated that planned upgrades or transitions associated with meeting the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) regulation could better facilitate connecting data.
• Staff skill and time to focus on connected data. Most respondents highlighted the importance of having staff with deep knowledge of child welfare data and methods of connecting data and the time to undertake connected data projects. However, many respondents shared that their teams had limited capacity to focus on connected data because they were understaffed.
• Data quality, timeliness, and completeness for connecting and using data. Limitations in data quality created barriers to connecting data and using connected data. Examples of limitations included discrepancies, errors, missingness, or duplication in demographic data and issues with quality and completeness in other agencies’ data or data submitted by child welfare contributing agencies (CWCAs). Although respondents discussed a variety of data quality issues that could affect the process of connecting data and using connected data, they highlighted how teams dedicated to data quality assurance or continuous quality improvement helped reconcile these issues.

To answer these questions, we use data collected from interviews with state child welfare directors and technical staff. Interviews with state child welfare directors typically focused on key characteristics of the state system of record, the structure of the child welfare department, and the facilitators and barriers to connected data. Interviews with state child welfare technical staff typically focused on data sharing agreements (DSAs), the methodology of connecting data, how states store connected data, and the facilitators and barriers to connected data.

The study team developed summaries of the interviews by state that were coded using NVivo and then synthesized findings related to facilitators and barriers of using connected data.

Pranschke, L., E. Gao, C. Smithers Wulsin, and M.C. Bradley. “Facilitators and Barriers to Connected Data Use: Findings from Interviews with State Child Welfare Agency Staff.” OPRE Report #2024-170. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024.