Child and Adolescent Analytics

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and State Court Administrative Office

The Child and Adolescent Data Lab is working to better understand how children and adolescent move through (and at times between) the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. To do this, the Child and Adolescent Data Lab is partnering with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the State Court Administrative Offices.

A primary objective of this work is to move beyond simple population counts and estimates. Through the sharing of individual (de­identified) records starting in 2009, the Child and Adolescent Data Lab will develop data visualizations that capture important system indicators at the State and individual county levels. Topic specific research briefs will also be developed to help guide policy and practice decisions.

Specifically, the Child and Adolescent Data Lab will look at:

  1. Maltreatment in substitute care settings
  2. Transition to adulthood and the Michigan voluntary foster care program
  3. Population flow through Michigan’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems
  4. Initial offending patterns and recidivism in juvenile court
  5. Disproportionate minority contact (DMC)
  6. Adolescents simultaneously or sequentially open in child welfare and juvenile justice (crossover youth)