Using Data in Child Welfare and Youth Justice Practice

There are a number of child welfare dashboards that may be found in eWiSACWIS. These dashboards are web pages where you may learn about a topic of interest (e.g. Access, or Workload Management). The eWReports User Guide provides a description of the dashboards. This guide also has instructions on how to access the dashboards. 

There are many reports available in eWReports that summarize information workers enter in eWiSACWIS. These reports are usually formatted as spreadsheets.

• The eWReports User Guide offers instructions on how to get permission to download and use these reports.
• The Most Frequently Used Child Welfare and Youth Justice Report Guide ("Reports-Frequently Used" in the eWiSACWIS Quick Links tab) provides descriptions of reports you may find helpful.
• The Reports Catalog, a descriptive list of all reports in the eWReports library.
• Tableau Dashboard Quick User Guide covers the basic components of dashboards.

The eWiSACWIS Knowledge Web provides user guides and videos to assist with child welfare case work. It is also accessible in the Quick Links tab within eWiSACWIS.

Listen in and ask questions during Lunch & Learn conversations. These talks are to assist staff in learning more about their agency’s casework. A DCF Research Analyst will provide an overview of a data report or dashboard. A question/answer period will follow.

If you have suggestions on reports or dashboards to be featured, please make a request to: DCFCWRA@wisconsin.gov.

Child Welfare Reports are usually presented in large spreadsheets that allow users to further review data. It may be helpful to have the following base understanding of how to work with Microsoft Excel:

• Hiding and Unhiding Columns; Grouping Rows (3 minutes) Realize a better understanding of datasets by learning these skills.
• Freezing Panes (3 minutes) Learn how to freeze panes to keep certain column and row headings always visible
• Filter columns (First 6 minutes) Find out how to filter the data
• 10 General Excel Tips (First 10 minutes) Included are how to display data, create tables and charts, and write formulas
• Pivot Table (6 minutes) Discover Pivot Tables, a great tool used to summarize data

Each report begins with a Report Info tab providing a high-level description of:

• What the report population is
• What is included in each worksheet
• The suggested use

A detailed description of each report including the definitions of each variable is also available. Please reference page 6 of The eWReports User Guide to learn how to access this documentation.