Introduction
Legal professionals who focus on child welfare cases may need to use research and data to guide and improve court hearing practice. A new resource—the Compendium of Measures and Data Sources: Understanding Judicial Decision-Making and Hearing Quality in Child Welfare (Compendium)—can point legal professionals to appropriate research measures and data sources to use in their work. This document briefly summarizes the Compendium and how legal professionals can use it.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to explain the Compendium and how it can be a valuable resource for child welfare legal professionals. It highlights the range of research measures, measurement strategies, and data sources used to study judicial decision-making and hearing quality in child welfare cases. Examples illustrate how various child welfare legal professionals might use the research measures and data sources in the Compendium to improve court hearing practice.
Citation
Chiamulera, C. (2021). How legal professionals can use the compendium of measures and data sources (OPRE Report No. 2021-126). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.