Comprehensive Child Data

• Child Trends: a national nonprofit research organization focused on improving the lives of children, youth, and their families. Their databank features data by topic, including child maltreatment/welfare, early childhood, families, health, and social and emotional learning.
• KIDS COUNT Data Center: KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation that provides comprehensive child and family well-being data. Depending on the data point, the tool offers data at the national, state, county, and school district levels.
• State of Babies Yearbook: The ZERO TO THREE agency comprehensively analyzes our youngest population through an annual yearbook report. State of Babies is a national and state resource reviewing over 60 indicators for babies and toddlers.

Population Data, Demographics, and Poverty

• Easy Access to Juvenile Populations (EZAPOP): This is an accessible source for single-age youth population data. This source provides national, state, and county-level population data by age, sex, race, and ethnicity. The website offers tools to easily compare data groups and export the data for your use.
• National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP): NCCP provides data and resources about children and their families related to poverty, low-income housing, early childhood education, mental health, immigration, public benefits, and more. Their tools include a budget calculator, state data generator, and youth risk calculator.
• State Population Resources: Some states have created online resources that summarize their Census data. In Indiana, STATS Indiana is an excellent resource for finding quick profiles and maps on population, housing, education, income and poverty, health, and employment. SAVI is another resource available to the central and southern Indiana regions that provides detailed information and profiles. SAVI offers tools to analyze and visualize data from central Indiana communities.
• United for ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, or ALICE, focuses on the population living slightly above the Federal Poverty Level who struggle to afford basic household expenses. United for ALICE provides interactive tools to view data and information on these ALICE households by nation, state, and county.
• U.S. Census Bureau: Provides high-quality data on people and the economy. It features a few data resources, including Quick Facts, American FactFinder, American Community Survey, and On the Map. Information is available at various geographic levels, including national, state, county, city and town, township, region, census tract, and more. In 2019, the Census Bureau enhanced its data tools to provide maps, visuals, and tables related to the data indicators.
• United States Interagency Council on Homelessness: This source features helpful resources and tools to explore homelessness at the national and state levels and the efforts to address it.
• AFCARS | The Administration for Children and Families: The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects and reports on information served by the foster care system. Access national and state-level foster and adoption statistics updated annually.

Education Data

• Lumina Foundation: Lumina is committed to increasing Americans’ post-secondary attainment. They have national, state, county, and metro area data available.
• Office of Head Start: In every state and nearly every county, there is a Head Start and Early Head Start program promoting the school readiness of young children. Data about the populations served and the program can be found in the Program Information Reports (PIR), which are updated annually. We used the PIR data to complete the Indiana Head Start Needs Assessment Reports.
• State Departments of Social Services: Many state or human services departments oversee child care for young and school-age children. In Indiana, the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) oversees several social service departments serving young children and families, disability services, aging, mental health, and more. Look for content related to data, statistics, and reports.
• State Departments of Education:
• Each state’s Department of Education has information about individual schools, corporations, and their students.  In Indiana, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has a Data Center & Reports webpage with downloadable data sheets. Users can also access the Graduates Prepared to Succeed (GPS) portal, which provides information about the performance of Indiana’s schools based on select indicators.
• State Departments of Higher Education: Each State Department maintains information on postsecondary educational attainment. In Indiana, this is the Commission for Higher Education (CHE). They release an annual report and an interactive dashboard featuring college-readiness and completion data at the state, county, and school district levels.

Health

• Feeding America: We know that access to food correlates with the health of individuals and communities. Feeding America has an interactive online tool that allows users to explore food insecurity and costs at the local, national, state, county, or district level.
• Mental Health America: Provides data and information on youth mental health and well-being.
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ): RWJ provides annual county health rankings for communities via the County Health Rankings and Roadmap website.
• State Departments of Health: Each State Department has access to health-specific information. In Indiana, this is the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). ISDH has information related to the prevalence of drug overdoses, sexually transmitted diseases, births and deaths, cancer, infectious diseases, and other health issues.

Economic

• State Departments of Workforce Development: Each state has an agency or office focused on workforce development. In Indiana, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) features workforce and economic data on a separate website, Hoosiers by the Numbers. Here, you can find data by state or county on economics, education, employment,  unemployment, wages, and labor force.

1. Avoid data from news articles or social media. If you see a data point in these sources, find its source to determine accuracy and relevancy. The source will allow you to defend your narrative or graphic. Knowing the source will enable you to revisit it efficiently for more data needs.  
2. Look for consistent sources and definitions. For example, the Lumina Foundation may define adult educational attainment differently from the U.S. Census Bureau. This will cause data from the same year to vary across sources, potentially eroding your audience’s trust in the reported numbers.