Juvenile Law Best Practices: Looking at the Evidence Base: Agencies and Organizations

The center produces an annual Kids Count Data Book, which includes national and state data on key indicators of child well being. The center also allows users to create customized data reports.

This organization promotes reform of juvenile justice. The "resources" link provides access to their publications and focus areas, which include conditions of confinement, alternatives to incarceration, and reducing racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.

This center, based at the University of California, Irvine, evaluates both juvenile and adult rehabilitation, parole, and reentry programs and issues information designed to help corrections officials make policy decisions based on scientific evidence.

This Georgetown University center promotes evidence-based reform in the areas of juvenile justice and youth development. The website provides information about current projects and provides full-text access to a variety of papers.

The site provides access to articles and presentations on evidence-based practices in education, with emphasis on special education (includes individuals who are gifted and/or have disabilities). See the "Research Quality/EBP" tab.

ECTAC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill supports children with disabilities in all 50 states by working to improve educational services and outcomes. The evidence-based practice portion of their website links to excellent resources in the area of early childhood, autism, school readiness, and social/emotional interventions, as well as on understanding and implementing evidence-based practices generally.

This Pennsylvania center promotes evidence-based juvenile delinquency prevention and intervention programs.

This collaboration between Princeton University and the Brookings Institution aims to connect social science research about youth to policy making. The site includes full-text journals and policy briefs.

JDAI is an Annie E. Casey Foundation initiative that provides replicable strategies to reduce reliance on secure confinement, improve public safety, and reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.

This project works to ensure professional journalists are covering juvenile justice issues on a daily basis and strives to expand juvenile justice news coverage. Select the "Resource Hub" from the top menu to access information on evidence-based practices, including issue overviews, reform trends, resources, and experts.

The National Center for State Courts is an independent, nonprofit organization meant to serve as a clearinghouse for research information and comparative data to support improvement in judicial administration in state courts. This resource guide links to a variety of juvenile justice topics including evidence-based programs.

Funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Models for Change works with selected states to accelerate the implementation of replicable models for juvenile justice reform. Areas of emphasis include evidence-based practices, aftercare, mental health treatment, and community-based alternatives to confinement. Their website provides access to the organization's publications as well as details about state-specific projects currently underway.

This organization tries to improve juvenile and family justice courts. Use the "Publications" and "Policy Information" links in the upper left to get started.

"NCCD conducts qualitative and quantitative research on various issues in the child welfare, juvenile justice, education, criminal justice, and adult protective service systems. We also look at unique populations’ experiences of these systems, including people of color and LGBT individuals."

This organization helps state, local, and tribal entities evaluate juvenile justice programs and implement evidence-based initiatives. Their website provides access to publications and training presentations.

From the Vera Institute of Justice Center on Youth Justice. If provides tools, assistance, and research support to jurisdictions that want to divert status offenders away from the justice system.

This organization advocates the use of a pyramid model "within early intervention and early education programs with a focus on promoting the social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes of young children birth to five, reducing the use of inappropriate discipline practices, promoting family engagement, using data for decision-making, integrating early childhood and infant mental health consultation and fostering inclusion."

This site from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children and Families provides resources on evidence-based child abuse prevention programs and strategies

The IES is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education and focuses on providing "rigorous and relevant evidence" on what does and does not work, particularly for students at risk of failure, so that educational policies, practices, and outcomes can be improved. The website provides access to a wide range of publications and data including a "What Works Clearinghouse."

This project from the U.S. Department of Justice provides Q&As, publications, and links to related websites on a variety of topics impacting children including child abuse, underage drug use, alternatives to incarceration, delinquency prevention programs such as faith involvement and mentoring, juvenile offender recidivism rates, truancy, and more.

OJJDP supports states and communities in the development and implementation of effective prevention and intervention programs that improve the juvenile justice system and enhance the safety and well being of children. After accessing the site, click "Topics" on the left for more information about the agency's areas of emphasis. Click on "Publications" to access journals, newsletters, reports, fact sheets, and other publications. This is also a useful site for obtaining statistical data.