Casebook offers three different fields related to race and ethnicity. Each field has a specific use, and they are built to mirror U.S. Federal Reporting guidelines
Race
Race is defined as "Any one of the groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits regarded as common among people of shared ancestry" (Merriam-Webster dictionary). In the United States, Federal reporting guidelines dictate five race values:
- White – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
- Black or African American – A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
- American Indian or Alaska Native – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
- Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
If your organization reports to Federal entities, it's important that your race values map to these groups. For this reason, the 'race' values in Casebook are not configurable. Along with the above five race values, you will also see 'unknown' and 'declined' as options in Casebook. There are some Federal reports (such as AFCARS and NCANDS) that accept these values when reporting data.
For more information about tabulating and reporting Race in the U.S., you can visit the Census Bureau website here: https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is defined as "Of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background." (Merriam-Webster dictionary). There are thousands of ethnic groups around the world. When it comes to the U.S. Federal reporting guidelines, however, the only values collected for ethnicity are about Hispanic or Latino origin (see below for more information on this).
Because we understand some Human Services organizations want to track granular ethnicity data (especially those providing services to refugees), Casebook has an 'ethnicity' field that is separate from the 'Hispanic or Latino field that maps to the Federal reporting guidelines.
The values for ethnicity are configurable in cb Admin and can be used to track specific population data for your internal reporting or reporting that is sent out to funders.
Hispanic or Latino
As mentioned above, the U.S. Federal reporting guidelines track a specific set of values for ethnicity, which is a separate field in Casebook. In the United States, Federal reporting guidelines dictate these values:
- Hispanic or Latino
- Not Hispanic or Latino
- Unable to determine
If your organization reports to Federal entities, it's important that your Hispanic/Latino values map to these values. For this reason, the 'Hispanic or Latino' values in Casebook are not configurable. Along with the above three values, you will also see 'unknown' as an option in Casebook.
For more information about tabulating and reporting on ethnicity/Hispanic origin in the U.S., you can visit the Census Bureau website here: https://www2.census.gov/about/training-workshops/2020/2020-02-19-pop-presentation.pdf.
For more on how to pull race and ethnicity data out of Casebook with our business intelligence app, cb Reporting, click here.