Rebecca Rebbe, Assistant Professor with the USC Children’s Data Network, received the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. This award is given to the dissertation that “has the greatest potential for making a significant contribution to the child maltreatment theoretical and applied knowledge base.” We are honored to help extend that work in California, Rebecca, and pleased to see your work receive the recognition it deserves.

Interested in recent developments from the Data Front? See what we’ve been up to here:

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In its newest article, COVID-19 Crisis and Recovery, Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) touted our partnership with the state and OpenLattice to build and launch mychildcare.ca.gov, an online tool to connect essential workers to available child care slots, as an example of how integrated administrative data has been applied – and proven helpful – in the context of state-level crisis response and rebuilding. In addition to reinforcing how such projects can meet immediate, pressing, and concrete family needs, the article also highlights how these efforts became opportunities to validate the CHHS Data Hub, a secure, cloud-based research enclave for hosting linked research data sets, which was at that time, still under development, and routinize processes related to efficient data sharing and analysis.

On May 2^nd, 2019, Lindsey Palmer, Research Assistant at the Children’s Data Network, passed her qualifying exam with distinction and advanced to candidacy for her doctorate. Her paper, “A Case Control Study of Suicide Risk Among Adolescents with a History of Alleged Maltreatment” presents a population-based analysis of the child protective service (CPS) histories of adolescents who died by suicide and examines the child maltreatment characteristics and system level responses associated with risk of adolescent suicide. We are so proud of you, and thrilled that you are part of the CDN team!

Eunhye Ahn, Research Assistant at the Children’s Data Network passed her qualifying exam on May 12th, 2020, with distinction and has advanced to candidacy for her doctorate. In addition, she presented her paper, “Machine Learning for a Child Welfare System: Predicting Risk of Aging Out Among Foster Care Youth” during a CDN brownbag session, expertly highlighting the findings and facilitating discussion among the attendees. We are so proud of you, Eunhye, and thrilled to have you on our team.

Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy published a new report today, Introduction to Data Sharing and Integration. This informative handbook provides a primer on the effective and ethical use of linked administrative data. We were pleased to see that the CHHS Record Reconciliation and Research Data Hub and the California Strong Start Index are presented as successful examples of how integrated data is being used to inform programs and policies. Hearty congratulations all around!

Californians working in essential sectors during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response need safe, reliable, and accessible child care options. The USC Children’s Data Network is honored to have played a significant role in the rapid development and operation of mychildcare.ca.gov, a searchable, web-based interface that connects essential workers across the state of California to quickly find timely, accurate information about the availability of local, licensed child care slots. Mychildcare.ca.gov was officially launched during Governor Newsom’s April 30th daily briefing. This ambitious effort required exceptional partnership and collaboration with the Governor’s Office, California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS), California Department of Social Services (CDSS), California Department of Education (CDE), California Resource and Referral Network (CCR&RN), local Resource and Referral (RR) Agencies, Open Lattice, all 46,000+ child care providers across the state of California, and many more. As such, the Governor called mychildcare.ca.gov “profoundly important,” and the Children’s Data Network was credited, among others, for making this dream a reality.

Governor Newsom’s briefing can viewed in its entirety here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LGwY3jwGaY

Mychildcare.ca.gov can be accessed through the state’s coronavirus response homepage: https://covid19.ca.gov/childcare/

Now Live in Health Affairs: Integrating Data To Advance Research, Operations, And Client-Centered Services In California. This article presents the background, context, outcomes, and value of the California Health and Human Services Agency / Children’s Data Network Record Reconciliation and Research Data Hub efforts, and, specifically, how agency-wide data integration has helped to shift discussions from the programs that administer services to the clients who are served. We are thrilled to have debuted this work in such a reputable journal and to have the this very public acknowledgement of our successful university-agency partnership.

Two Senior Children’s Data Network personnel have been invited to serve as advisors to the development of the California Cradle-to-Career Data System. Emily Putnam-Hornstein, PhD, Director of the Children’s Data Network and Associate Professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, has accepted an invitation to serve of the Policy and Analytics Advisory Group. The Policy and Analytics Advisory Group will inform the interagency group’s discussions about how to ensure the data system supports research, evaluation, accountability, and optimization of publicly-funded services at the state level. In addition, John Prindle, PhD, Assistant Research Professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, will be serving on the Common Identifier Sub-Committee. The Common Identifier Sub-Committee will include representatives from both the partner entities named in the legislation and individuals with experience linking individual records across data sets. This sub-committee is tasked with providing recommendations to the larger Workgroup regarding how to design the technical process that will be used to link student records across partner entities. We are honored to provide technical assistance and thought leadership around this exciting effort.

CDN undergraduate student, Rachel Chen, has been accepted as a scholar in the USC Research Gateway Scholars Program. This 2-year program is an opportunity to propose and conduct formal research under the guidance of USC Faculty mentors and a gateway to pursuing graduate-level studies. Selected among a highly competitive pool of applicants, Rachel’s acceptance highlights her great potential to make a meaningful impact throughout her academic career. The CDN would like to congratulate Rachel on her achievements and hope she enjoys all of the exciting challenges and opportunities.