Effective Child Welfare Research and Evaluation Using Remote Methods

The COVID-19 pandemic has required rapid adaptations in child welfare services and evaluation. Among these changes, child welfare agencies must deliver services remotely, and evaluators must shift to remote research methods.

This guide provides an overview of the challenges child welfare researchers and evaluators may face in conducting research and collecting data remotely. It also offers concrete strategies and recommendations to address these challenges. Topics covered include adapting evaluation designs to accommodate remote data collection, selecting and employing virtual data collection technologies, maintaining data privacy, and collecting qualitative data with remote methods.