This article presents the authors’ approach to linking individuals across an existing, statewide K-12 student discipline database and a statewide juvenile justice database in order to address a current challenge to tracking individuals across multiple datasets; they also discuss data security safeguards.
Existing datasets can be especially useful in counseling outcome research. Institutional or governmental resources such as electronic medical, educational, social services, and criminal justice records hold valuable information about clients’ lives, such as systemic issues, barriers to treatment, and advocacy needs. Unfortunately, these datasets often exist in silos so tracking an individual across multiple datasets is a complex challenge. In this article, the authors describe their approach to linking individuals across an existing, statewide K-12 student discipline database and a statewide juvenile justice database. They also describe data security safeguards and strategies for success when utilizing archival data. Publisher Abstract Provided