Of all the social challenges the public sector works to overcome, ensuring the wellbeing of children is undoubtedly among the most important, writes Joshua New in the Chronicle of Social Change. Consider that in 2014, 702,000 children were abused or neglected in the United States and 1,580 children died as a result. So when Los Angeles County announced in July 2015 that it would begin using predictive analytics to help its social workers quickly identify the most at-risk children and help the county prioritize its efforts to deliver services more efficiently, child welfare advocates should have rejoiced. Instead, this and similarly promising approaches have encountered substantial opposition from a surprising number of advocates who worry that using data to assist with child welfare investigations would perpetuate racial discrimination, violate human rights, and ultimately cause more harm than good. Not only are these critics fundamentally wrong, but their resistance to using data to improve outreach and assistance is quite likely jeopardizing the wellbeing of children.
