Policy Websites
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- California Department of Social Services: Children & Family Services The Division`s Services include assistance in Adoptions, Foster Care, Children's Services and Child Welfare.
- California Department of Social Services: Policy/Planning Includes the following policy/planning sections: Financial, Child Welfare Policy, Program Planning, Program Statistics/Data, CWS Improvements, and Contracts/Procurement
- Child & Family Policy Institute of California The purpose of the CFPIC is to “advance the development of sound public policy and promote program excellence in county Human Services Agencies through research, education, training and technical assistance.”
- Child Welfare League of America: Advocacy This site includes information on legislation and issues of interest to CWLA members.
- PolicyArchive PolicyArchive is a comprehensive digital library of public policy research containing over 22,000 documents.
- Public Agenda Public Agenda is a New York-based nonprofit that does opinion surveys on a range of issues, from education to foreign policy to immigration to religion and civility in American life. The site includes facts and figures, different perspectives and analysis
- U.S. Government Accountability Office: Topic Collections Topic collections include reports and testimonies.
Statistical Websites
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- California Statistical Abstract A compilation of data on social, economic, and physical aspects of California
- CSU Long Beach Library: Social Work - Sources of Statistics This is an excellent list of online statistical sources in the following areas: Crime, Family/Children, Demographics, Health, Economics & Budgets, Opinion Poll Data, Education, Social Services, and Ethnic Groups
- CSU Northridge Oviatt Library: L.A. City/County Statistics & Facts Includes statistics in the following areas: Economic/Demographic, Crime, Environment, Education, and Health
- FedStats Provides access to the full range of official statistical information produced by the Federal Government for more than 100 agencies.
- HealthyCity HealthyCity.org is an online community service and policy research tool for all of Los Angeles County. Healthy City provides access to a large database of community resources and localized demographic and health data on a GIS mapping platform.
- Journalist's Resource: Major Administrative Datasets of the U.S. Government Links to "vital statistics on health, transportation, commerce, finance, agriculture, and more." Much of this information is gathered by 13 of the major statistical agencies, but many smaller organizations are also listed.
- Statistical Abstracts of the United States Summarizes federal census statistics
- U.S. Census Bureau: American FactFinder American population, housing, economic, and geographic data.
CQ Public Affairs Collection
Organized by 22 key public affairs subject headings—like Advocacy and Public Service, Education, Energy, the Environment, Health, and Transportation—the CQ Public Affairs Collection features in-depth reporting on vital issues, statistical and historical analyses, historic documents and primary source materials, as well as a directory of key government, nonprofit, and private organizations in each of the major policy areas.
Using the California & Federal Databases
When researching particular legislation, starting with the actual text of the bill is key to understanding the context, focus, projected outcomes/programs, etc. The information below will help you locate California State or Federal legislation.
California Legislative Information
The key to using the California Legislative Information Bill Information database is the 'Session Year' option (see graphic below). You might have the title of the bill (which would be entered in the 'Keyword(s)' box), the bill number, or the bill author, but none of it will help unless you select the correct session year. If you know the session year, that's the best scenario, but you can also enter what you know and try it in different session years until you find the correct bill.
In addition to bills, the California Legislative Information website has a section for California Law where the state constitution and codes can be found.
State legislation often stems from legislation on the federal level. For federal bills, you'll search in the THOMAS database, which is maintained by the Library of Congress. Again, the session year is important to note. In THOMAS, the sessions are referred to as congresses, and these can be found in the advanced search (see graphic below). Unless you select a different congress, the search engine will look for your term(s) in the current congress. Searching in THOMAS is similar to searching the California database. Select a congress by clicking on one of the links above, enter the name of the bill or the bill number in the search box, and then click 'Search.'
Finding Policy News on the Internet
If you're trying to find the most current information on particular policies, you'll want to use the 'news' feature that most Internet search engines provide. This type of search will narrow the results to only those that show up in online news publications. Be sure to evaluate the news sources for any potential biases. Here are two examples of Internet news searches (for both searches, be sure to click on the 'News' link in the navigation bar):
