Using Linked Administrative Data to Improve Child Well-Being in the Rental Assistance Demonstration

Yumiko Aratani
Ariel Charney
National Center for Children in Poverty

Colleen Heflin
Syracuse University

This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges of using linked administrative data to evaluate the effectiveness of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) on child well-being. The authors draw from a recent study that links public housing resident records with state emergency department and school district records. The authors use that study as an example of how linked administrative data can be used to assess the consequences of RAD and other social programs and to achieve better outcomes for children in low-income families.