The California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP), has developed a new County Prevention Data Dashboard to identify areas of strength and need pertaining to the prevention of child maltreatment across California. This tool presents relevant data in one location for primary and secondary prevention planning purposes and shares indicators of major risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect, social determinants of health, and early stages of child welfare involvement. By utilizing the dashboards, prevention experts can compare their local data to the State of California as a whole, or individual counties. Over time, it is anticipated that counties will be able to see trend information.

The County Prevention Data Dashboards consist of the following categories and information:  

• Demographics 
  • Child population, race, and ethnicity, children with a disability, family structures of households with children, limited English-speaking households, and rural population.
• Socioeconomic Status
  • Child poverty, child food insecurity, homeless public-school students, median family income, adults over 25 years with less than high school education, and unemployment rate. 
• Health 
  • Teen birth rates, adult reports of childhood adversities, adult reports of physical and mental health challenges, low birth-weight births, child and infant mortality rates, and women who experience post-partum depression.
• Substance Use 
  • Alcohol or drug related emergency room visits, alcohol or drug use by seventh graders, drug-induced deaths in population, opioid overdose deaths, binge or heavy drinking, and alcohol sales locations.
• Violence 
  • Violent crimes, felony arrests, domestic violence reports, seventh grade students bullied or harassed, and nonfatal assault injuries in emergency room.
• Service Access
  • Child poverty and childcare subsidies, CalFresh reach to eligible participants, infants whose mothers received prenatal care in first trimester, low-income population not covered by health insurance, and mental health providers in population.  
• Child Welfare
  • Welfare outcomes, disposition types for children with first allegation, outcomes for children with a prior substantiation, and children with allegations in 12 months following first disposition.
• Racial Disproportionality Index (for the following indicators)
  • Low-income by race, low-income by ethnicity, child maltreatment allegations, child maltreatment substantiations, and felony arrests.

The County Prevention Data Dashboard is an accessible resource to locate public data and inform prevention planning efforts. Access it through OCAP’s website at: http://www.cdss.ca.gov/infores...OCAP/Data-Dashboards