Data collection
Local data collectors were dedicated to each agency and trained on how the agency handled cases; 2 days
of initial training were provided, but procedural refinements and training of field staff were ongoing activ-
ities. Data collection involved a series of start up activities in which data collectors reviewed and collected
information from home agencies, followed by a case matching process to ensure that cases were matched
across all agencies so (1) cross-agency involvement was known for each case and (2) duplication of cases in
the sample was identified and dealt with to yield a sufficient number of unduplicated cases. Case linkages
were made based on name and birth date. This information was kept completely separate from the informa-
tion collected about the child, family, maltreatment incident and agency intervention that was collected for
the case processing analysis. All data collected for the analysis was completely de-identified. The project
met all requirements of Westat’s human subjects review board that were in place at the time of the study.