The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability (OIAA), in partnership with the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice (RESJ) and the Office of Tribal Relations, has released its most recent report, Using Data in DCYF to Advance Racial Equity. This report presents an agencywide integrated approach to collecting and reporting data on race/ethnicity, equity, disproportionality, and disparity, and describes how we as an agency can create a common data approach for successfully advancing and measuring improvements in racial equity in a coordinated way across DCYF.
The report concentrates on two areas:
- Understanding race and ethnicity data as they are presently used within DCYF and establishing agency standards for collecting and reporting race/ethnicity data.
- Identifying race and ethnic disproportionality and disparity across DCYF programs and related outcomes.
In addition to providing key equity metrics for the agency and highlighting the variation in how race and ethnicity are reported across DCYF, the report introduces common language and definitions to improve our communication and ensure consistent reporting across the agency. Accompanying videos summarizing the content of the report are available on the DCYF reports.