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Introduction
The Center for Families, Children & the Courts (CFCC) has undertaken a project that will provide family court executives and personnel with access to information on court-based child custody mediation in California from the Statewide Uniform Statistical Reporting System (SUSRS) through a restricted access Internet site. The Web site will be launched in late 2004.
Snapshot Online will be a central repository for all data, analysis, and reports from the SUSRS. The central feature of Snapshot Online will be a drill-down menu of 1,000-1,500 pre-defined tables. In addition to basic frequencies, cross-tabular analysis will be provided to allow used examine how results vary for different segments of the mediation client population. Wherever possible, tables will also show trends in results over time going back to the first SUSRS study in 1991. Snapshot Online will also offer users access to fact sheets and reports based on more in-depth analysis of SUSRS data, as well as links to related resources.
Information in the
SUSRS includes client demographics, outcomes of custody mediations, and
counselors' and parents' assessments of issues affecting families, such
as domestic violence or behavior problems in children. Snapshot Online
will present the data at several levels of analysis: parent, family, child,
and mediator. Data at the individual or county level will not be made
available.
Information from the SUSRS is provided to courts and to a wide range of audiences via reports, fact sheets, and briefings available on the CFCC Web site. The SUSRS contains a wealth of additional data on custody mediations in the state. Presently courts and individuals must request special analyses from CFCC research staff to get access to these additional data. With Snapshot Online, individual courts can access and use this data to plan and assess services, determine client satisfaction with services, determine the orientation or education needs of parents involved in custody proceedings, review long-term outcomes of various models of custody decisions, and answer many other questions.
Please contact CFCC@jud.ca.gov for more information.
