ARTICLE TAG

big data

Youth Services Insider
Capitol View

7/13/2018

Congress Weighs Pilot Program for Predictive Analytics Use in Child Welfare

A new bill introduced by Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) last month would establish a pilot program to test the use of predictive analytics in identifying and protecting children who are at risk of maltreatment.

5/9/2017

Risky Business: A Child’s Death in L.A. Elicits More Questions than Answers

Los Angeles County, home to the nation’s largest locally-run child welfare system, is grappling with how to measure and respond to the risk that a child will be abused. At the heart of this confounding, complicated issue are two hard-to-answer questions.

4/28/2017

Break Down Your Data Barriers

In the helping professions, few words elicit as strong and varied a reaction as “data.” Having strong outcome data to support your organization’s claims is essential, and there is immense value in using high quality information to guide your decision-making. 

4/21/2017

Is this ‘Minority Report’ or is it the Future of Child Welfare?

Predictive analytics, mathematical equations that forecast where events will likely occur, and the use of data within governmental agencies such as the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) are seen by many as a way to proactively penalize people before they ever do anything wrong.

1/31/2017

‘Perpetrator’ Networks Key to Predicting Child Abuse

In the race to dominate the child abuse prediction market, the world’s largest data analytics firm has its eye on what it calls “perpetrator” networks. SAS, with a global workforce of 14,000 and $3.16 billion in revenue in 2015, delivered Florida’s Department of Children and Families a lengthy technical report in August of last year.

11/19/2016

Putting Lipstick on the Predictive Analytics Pig

Chronicle Senior Editor John Kelly argues that not only I, but also The New York Times, Forbes columnist John Carpenter, Republican strategist Mike Murphy and others are wrong to suggest that the presidential election revealed the emperor known as “predictive analytics” to be, at best, scantily clad if not stark naked.

    Youth Services Insider

    11/14/2016

    Big Data Loses. Bigly.

    I will leave it to others to try to guess what the election of Donald Trump means for child welfare policy, aside from pointing out that in addition to all the other reasons to worry, as far as I know the only one of his close advisers who’s ever thought about the topic – Newt Gingrich – has suggested throwing poor people’s children into orphanages.

    9/1/2016

    Big Data is Watching You: If Predictive Analytics Still Doesn’t Creep You Out, Watch This Ad

    The debate over predictive analytics in child welfare will continue right after this important message: So, what do we have here?  A bunch of data analysts, presumably working for a firm that sells sporting goods, are spying on a woman’s recreational habits.

    7/12/2016

    Interactive Map Assesses Risk and Prevention Services Across Texas

    The ZipRisk Project, spearheaded by the Texas Association for the Protection of Children (TexProtects), is an interactive online map that sorts the state’s zip codes by levels of risk for child maltreatment and neglect.