Data-Informed Policymaking

This project involves the development of a statewide early childhood integrated data system that includes administrative data from a variety of agencies from the health, economic and education sectors that support young children and their families within the early childhood mixed delivery system. The primary product is an interactive web portal that presents maps and other data visualization analyses to provide a comprehensive view of the strengths and needs within the state’s system to support data-informed decision-making among state and local policymakers.

Visit the Sunshine Portal here.

• Funding Source: Florida Division of Early Learning, Florida Department of Education
• Funding Period: 07/22/2020-06/30/2023
• Funding Number: SR662

Team:

• Herman Knopf, Program Director/Principal Investigator, University of Florida
• Elizabeth Ann Shenkman, Co-Program Director/Principal Investigator, University of Florida
• Maya Schreiber, Data Management Analyst I, University of Florida
• Remy Pages, Post-Doctoral Associate, University of Florida
• Dévonja Daley, Research Coordinator I, University of Florida
• Phillip R. Sherlock, Research Affiliate, Northwestern University
• Jing Huang, Doctoral Student, University of Florida
• Brigid Treverton, Doctoral Student, University of Florida

This project involves the development of a statewide early childhood integrated data system that includes administrative data from a variety of agencies from the health, economic and education sectors that support young children and their families within the early childhood mixed delivery system. The primary product is an interactive web portal that presents maps and other data visualization analyses to provide a comprehensive view of the strengths and needs within the state’s system to support data-informed decision-making among state and local policymakers.

• Funding Source: Florida Division of Early Learning, Florida Department of Education
• Funding Period: 07/01/2021-06/30/2023
• Funding Number: SR662

Team:

• Herman Knopf, Program Director/Principal Investigator, University of Florida
• Remy Pages, Post-Doctoral Associate, University of Florida
• Maya Schreiber, Data Management Analyst I, University of Florida
• Dévonja Daley, Research Coordinator I, University of Florida
• Phillip R. Sherlock, Research Affiliate, Northwestern University
• Jing Huang, Doctoral Student, University of Florida
• Brigid Treverton, Doctoral Student, University of Florida

This interactive mapping tool, included in the Sunshine State Early Childhood Information Portal (SR662), depicts levels of access to quality child care for families enrolled in the Florida School Readiness Subsidy Program. This administrative data tool is used by state and local decision-makers to report families’ access at the zip-code level. The FLICCA uses two main measurements of access: infrastructure (i.e., the amount of high-quality care available relative to the number of subsidy recipients needing that care) and selection (i.e., the tendency for families using subsidies to enroll their children in available high-quality care). The relationship between these two measurements reveals the market distribution in child care within local communities, informing local policymakers to design and implement appropriate data-informed actions.

• Funding Source: Florida Division of Early Learning, Florida Department of Education
• Funding Period: 10/07/2019-06/30/2023
• Funding Number: SR662

Team:

• Herman Knopf, Program Director/Principal Investigator, University of Florida
• Maya Schreiber, Data Management Analyst I, University of Florida
• Phillip R. Sherlock, Research Affiliate, Northwestern University
• Jing Huang, Doctoral Student, University of Florida

The Center’s early childhood policy research group provides ongoing support to various local governments in recommended practices for utilizing administrative data to improve early learning services for young children and families. These projects are each unique, answering specific policy questions, conducting data analyses, and providing consultation support as identified by the community stakeholders.

The Center’s early childhood policy research group serves as a resource to others in developing protocols and systems for the receipt, curation and analysis of statewide administrative data. In this project, we helped to address the research needs of the Alabama Department of Human Resources. Through a partnership with Dr. Alison Hooper from the University of Alabama (UA), the team helped to identify the adequacy of data sources used to conduct analyses. The data collected through this study assisted UA researchers in conducting analyses to describe child care access across Alabama with a specific focus on families who use the state’s child care subsidy program.

You can read more here.

• Funding Source: Alabama Department of Human Resources, State of Alabama
• Funding Period: 10/01/2019-09/30/2020
• Funding Number: 1952

Team:

• Herman Knopf, Program Director/Principal Investigator, University of Florida (subcontract) 
• Phillip R. Sherlock, Research Affiliate, Northwestern University

The Center’s early childhood policy research group provided direction and research to the Children’s Trust of Alachua County to support data-driven decisions and policy. Upon its creation, the Trust appointed a Technical Advisory Committee, led by Dr. Herman Knopf with support from Maya Schreiber. This committee had three main functions: to provide direction on the data and indicators necessary to understand the current state of child well-being; to collect already available data; and to identify new data that needs to be collected. The project culminated in a final report to the Trust’s board of directors, which included available data and recommendations for the upcoming strengths and needs assessment.

Visit the Children’s Trust of Alachua County website here.