The power of administrative databases which accumulate data on population wide delivery of services derives from their ability to provide a population-based perspective on outcomes.  The ability to combine information on individual backgrounds (such as area level socioeconomic status or age of mother at the time of a child’s birth) with birth status (such as birth weight or Apgar scores) and educational outcomes (such as standards test performance or high school completion) for an entire population allows one to investigate the underlying causes of child health inequalities.