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Integrating Federal Statistics on Children
Pages 1-8

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From page 1...
... It is in this context that the Committee on National Statistics and the Board on Children and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine convened a workshop to examine the adequacy of federal statistics on children and families. Through a series of background papers, discussants' remarks, and participant discussions, the workshop provided a forum for a preliminary assessment of the strengths and shortcomings of existing and proposed federal statistical data sources, particularly with respect to their capacity to fill the most pressing information needs of those who formulate, implement, and analyze policies for children.
From page 2...
... Furthermore, the participants were cognizant of the limited, if not shrinking, funds for federal data collection efforts. The net effect of budgetary limitations on heightening pressures for greater efficiency and coordination across the federal statistical agencies and on constraining the range of possible responses to improving the existing system was a topic of substantial discussion at the workshop.
From page 3...
... , the resource of parental time inputs surfaced as a major gap in current data collection efforts. Participants called for the addition of question sequences focused on parental time use to existing surveys, as well as for a separate national time use survey of children and their parents.
From page 4...
... Other presenters noted the limits of household-based surveys for addressing particular policy issues, notably those concerning violence against children and educational attainment and the transition to work. In the first case, exclusive reliance on a household-based sampling frame misses vital information on episodes of violence perpetrated by individuals who are weakly attached to the child's household.
From page 5...
... Suggestions for enhancing capacity at state and local levels to conduct surveys and to collect useful administrative data were also made. The broader issue in which this discussion was embedded concerned the importance of being able to link data across geographic levels (federal, state, local)
From page 6...
... In light of immigration trends, calls were also made for routinely including information about length of time in the United States and country of origin for all family members. • Improved longitudinal data on children and families would facilitate efforts to address several critical policy issues pertaining to changes in family resources, predictors of successful development across key transition points, and the identification of early precursors of seri ous problems in middle childhood and adolescence.
From page 7...
... The urgency of developing a cross-agency data coordinating mechanism that can direct efforts to reduce redundancies, cover gaps, standardize definitions and item formats, and, in general, establish a more efficient system, is compounded by current fiscal pressures. Furthermore, absent coordination, opportunities to share protocols and instruments, to consider complementary sampling strategies, to develop compatible data coding systems, and to collaborate on analyses and reporting of results will be missed.
From page 8...
... Efforts to develop and disseminate means of encouraging greater access to existing data on behalf of evaluators and researchers not involved in the original data design and collection were also identified as warranting immediate attention. Specific suggestions included involving data users early on in the development of new surveys, ascertaining effective approaches to training new users, and developing more accessible, user-friendly data files.


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