Pathways Recommendation
Use data to track community needs, available services, and racial/ethnic, linguistic and income disparities in delivery of services and children’s outcomes. Use these data to determine whether enough services are available and whether access to high quality services is equitable. Adjust delivery of services as needed.
Why This Matters
Early childhood data related to social-emotional health, both qualitative and quantitative, are necessary to ensure equitable and effective service. Population-level measures of young children’s social-emotional health are currently a data gap in North Carolina and are under development.1 Some program and community-level data exist that can be used and expanded on to inform policies, funding, and advocacy. Efforts to improve social-emotional health data systems are needed.