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Kansas Early Childhood Data Trust: integrated data show association with fewer foster-care removals
Summary
A multi-agency data trust analysis found participation in early-childhood services correlates with lower foster-care removals and produced a public dashboard to track service counts by county.
Jared Barton of the KU Center for Public Partnerships and Research reported on progress from the Kansas Early Childhood Data Trust, a multi-agency initiative to legally and technically enable cross-agency data projects.
Barton said the trust supports “authorized projects” (data-sharing efforts between two or more agencies) that undergo project-specific data-sharing agreements, governance review and technical integration. He described three authorized projects in progress or completed: (1) an integration between early-childhood services and child-welfare records led by the Department for Children and Families and the Kansas Children’s Cabinet; (2) a public-facing dashboard that counts children receiving various early-childhood services by geography; and (3) a pilot matching early-childhood records to K–12 student records held by the Kansas State Department of Education.
Barton summarized key findings from the first authorized project: participation in early-childhood services is associated with a 28% lower likelihood of removal to foster care in the analyzed cohort; 96% of children who participated in early-childhood services were not removed to out-of-home placements between 2015 and 2024; and the analysis estimated 384 children, birth to age 8, likely would have been removed to foster care between 2015 and 2024 had they not received early-childhood interventions. Barton characterized the results as “promising” while noting the work is longitudinal and ongoing.
On the public dashboard, Barton said the first data release went live in December 2023 and that the dashboard will be updated with 2024 data and additional features — including population overlays from census data to indicate service penetration and potential gaps. He said the newest pilot project linking early-childhood records to K–12 student data produced promising match rates, and the pilot could support future early-identification and school-outcome analyses.
Ending
Barton said the trust will continue to add longitudinal data, refine technical matches and expand dashboard functionality for planners and policymakers; the governance board meets quarterly and authorized projects require agency agreements and technical work before public dissemination.
