Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse: September 30, 2007, to September 30, 2012 (RPG-1)

During the first year of the RPG Program, HHS, with Office of Management and Budget approval, developed a web-based RPG Data Collection and Reporting System to compile the performance measure data across all 53 grantees.  Grantees began submitting case-level child and adult data to the RPG Data System in December 2008 and then uploaded their latest cumulative data files in December and June of each program year.  Grantees' final data upload was in December 2012.  The RPG Data System links data for children and adults together as a family unit and follows clients served over the course of the grant project, making it the most extensive quantitative dataset currently available on outcomes for children, adults, and families affected by substance abuse and child maltreatment.  Grantees collected and reported on the performance measures that aligned with their program models, services and activities, goals, and intended outcomes.  While grantee programs may have varied in terms of the interventions implemented, grantees reporting on the same performance measures submitted their data with specified data elements drawn from existing substance abuse and child welfare treatment reporting systems.  Thus, grantees submitted data using standardized definitions and coding (grantees were provided a Data Dictionary) to ensure consistency across RPG grantees collecting the same performance measures.  Each grantee was provided with individualized customized data plans for each of their RPG participant and control/comparison groups (some grantees had multiple treatment and control/comparison groups).  Each customized data plan included child and adult demographic information and the distinct data elements required to calculate the selected standardized child and adult performance measures.  The creation of individual data plans allowed for case-level data to be submitted in a standardized uniform file format, which further ensured consistent data collection and reporting across RPG grantees.  To further strengthen data quality and consistency, two immediate levels of automated quality assurance checks occurred when grantees submitted their data to the RPG Data System.  The first level of checks validated the accuracy of individual data elements based on valid coding and date ranges (e.g., a date of 2015 is identified as invalid, as the year has not occurred).  The second level of review involved approximately 150 data validation checks that addressed illogical coding (e.g., a male client is coded as pregnant), as well as potential relational inconsistencies or possible errors between data elements (e.g., a substance abuse assessment that occurs after substance abuse treatment entry instead of prior to entry).  To complete their data uploads, grantees had to correct definite coding errors and confirm or correct warnings regarding potential data inconsistencies. 
The dataset is a compilation of data from multiple administrative data sources, including child maltreatment data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), foster care data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), and caregiver substance abuse treatment data from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).  Data from the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS) are the only non-administrative data included in this collection. 

Researchers who order the RPG data from NDACAN should review the RPG user support information on the NDACAN website.

Investigators: Young, N. K., DeCerchio, K., Rodi, C.