This guide is designed to support administrative leaders in states and other jurisdictions in using data to assess and identify ways to improve their service array.

Explore how data reported in AFCARS about youth who run away from state custody can be used to inform interventions.

See how coordination can improve identification, reporting, and services for youth who are victims or at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking.

Listen to child welfare agency leaders in the District of Columbia talk about how they work with partners to use their different data lenses to understand the needs of families and to structure a set of services to best meet the full spectrum of needs. In Kentucky, child welfare agency leaders describe the process of finding the story behind the numbers to transform their system.

Explore information and get guidance about sex trafficking and identification of sex trafficking victims.

Learn about the definition and calculation of the CFSR statewide data indicator maltreatment in foster care.

Learn strategies to address the mental health needs of children, young people, and families.

Explore existing frameworks for protective capacities and protective factors and learn how to use them together for better prevention.

Review the protective capacities and protective factors frameworks used to assess, intervene, and serve families.

Learn about the definition and calculation of the CFSR statewide data indicator recurrence of maltreatment.

Learn about resources to support child welfare agencies as they implement requirements of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113–183) that prevent sex trafficking and improve child welfare responses to trafficking victims. 

Identify data sources to explore service array and resource development.

This “Service Array Data Inventory Sample Worksheet” (Worksheet) is a companion tool to A Data-Driven Approach to Service Array Guide developed by the Capacity Building Center for States. To use the Worksheet, you can print it out and fill in the blank squares, or use the questions as a guide.

Explore a family-focused program that embodies many of the changes that Kentucky wants to see throughout its child welfare system in this podcast. The START, program demonstrates a shift in organizational culture to focus on family and serves as an example of a truly collaborative team that uses early intervention and a shared decision-making model to work with families.

Explore tips and strategies to effectively engage and sustain the involvement of families and youth at the agency level.