Disaggregated data are critical to ensuring all of New York’s children and families have equitable access to the services they need to thrive. By understanding who is and who is not being served by the state’s early childhood systems, we can better identify and address systemic inequities. 

New York’s children’s behavioral health system is complex, with minimal disaggregation of access and utilization data. While a lot of data are available at a regional- or county-level, few indicators are disaggregated further by important demographic categories like race, gender, or age group. These data limitations inhibit the State and community-based providers from identifying and meeting the unmet needs of children in the state, and prevent parents, advocates, and community stakeholders from being fully informed about the services they need in their communities.

This fact sheet is part of a collection that explores the state of data disaggregation in four of New York’s key early childhood systems: Early Intervention, Child Care, Pre-Kindergarten & Preschool Special Education, and Behavioral Health. Please click here to view the full set, including recommendations for state and local leaders, as well as advocates, on ways to improve the collection and public reporting of disaggregated data across systems.