➡ From Child Welfare Information Gateway
US: The Policy Labs We Urgently Need (Commentary)
Governing – December 13, 2017
Following a bipartisan call to “improve the evidence available for making decisions about government programs and policies,” Congress is poised to pass legislation to establish secure infrastructure to accelerate statistical uses of federal administrative data while also ensuring stringent privacy protections for that data. But some states are already out ahead, establishing offices known as data labs or policy labs to enable them to partner with academia and make use of their administrative data to evaluate and improve programs and policies. In Chicago, for example, the Center for State Child Welfare Data helps multiple state governments create secure, longitudinal databases to make better use of their own data to help children.
Information Gateway resource: Evidence-Based Practice: https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/evidence/
http://www.governing.com/commentary/col-data-policy-labs-states-urgently-need.html