Building Evidence

5. Data Policy and Practices

The government has documented, user-friendly policies and practices to expedite internal and external data sharing, linkage and access.

Connecticut

Leading Example

The Chief Data Officer, along with individual agency data officers, is required to biannually update the state data plan, which covers open data and creates data standards for agencies. The plan also contains 11 principles and accompanying practices that all agencies should adopt to improve their management, use, sharing, and analysis of data. In addition, a 2019 law recommends: 1) establishing a coordinated governance structure for cross-agency data sharing, and 2) implementing cross-agency data-sharing agreements that are more flexible and durable. Building on this report, Connecticut released a Data-Sharing Playbook and developed an enterprise memorandum of understanding to help agencies share data safely, securely, and ethically.

Connecticut integrated principles on ethics and equity into data collection as well. Enacted in 2021, Public Act (PA) 21-35 set a goal “to attain at least a seventy percent reduction in the racial disparities set forth in subdivisions (1) to (4), inclusive, of this subsection from the percentage of disparities determined by the commission on or before January 1, 2022.” It mandates the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) to develop race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data collection standards to support the Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health’s mission to create a comprehensive strategic plan to eliminate health disparities and inequities across sectors.

Connecticut expanded the coverage of the state longitudinal data system, P20 WIN, in 2021. Ten state agencies and the Office of Policy and Management completed the development of a multi-party interagency agreement to preserve privacy while improving data sharing, as part of the expansion of the P20 WIN state longitudinal data system. The interagency agreement develops the legal and governance framework for interagency data sharing and was promoted by the attorney general as a ‘uniform interagency data sharing protocol.’ The enterprise agreement is paired with individual data sharing agreements for the primary legal and regulatory frameworks used by agencies.    

Promising Examples

Arizona

Arizona

California

California

Colorado

Colorado

Delaware

Delaware

Florida

Florida

Georgia

Georgia

Hawaii Image

Hawaii

Illinois

Illinois

Indiana

Indiana

Iowa

Iowa

Kentucky

Kentucky

Maryland

Maryland

Minnesota

Minnesota

Mississippi

Mississippi

Nevada

Nevada

New Jersey

New Jersey

North Carolina

North Carolina

Ohio

Ohio

Oklahoma Image

Oklahoma

Oregon

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Carolina

Tennessee

Tennessee

Texas

Texas

Utah

Utah

Virginia

Virginia

Washington

Washington