Integrating data across early childhood programs allows program staff and administrators, policymakers, and researchers to have a comprehensive picture of early childhood programs. While some states have taken significant steps to integrate data across many early childhood programs, home visiting data have seldom been included in these data integration efforts. The administration of home visiting models is complex, which poses challenges for data integration. A state’s home visiting models may be administered by a variety of organizations (e.g., private organizations, nonprofits, public agencies) and at different levels (state or local). Their data may be housed in vendor data systems, in paper or electronic form at individual programs, or in the state’s integrated data system. In addition, home visiting data may be recorded and tracked at the child, family, or program level, depending on the requirements of the model and lead organizations.
Data integration between home visiting and other early childhood data is a large undertaking, and state leaders may need a way to organize the information they gather to support this process. Organizing the data makes it possible for state leaders to understand what home visiting data currently exist and how they are linked. States can accomplish this by developing an inventory of existing home visiting data that shows where the data are housed and whether they are already linked or integrated with any other early childhood data. States can then use this inventory to develop a “map” for how these home visiting data can be linked together and eventually integrated with other early childhood data.
The purpose of this resource is to provide a guide that states can use to develop a map of home visiting and other early childhood data. Specifically, this resource outlines how to 1) compile a list of home visiting programs in a state, 2) identify available home visiting data and linkages, and 3) create a data map.
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