Rhode Island

In June 2023, Governor Dan McKee signed the Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System Act into law. Among the various components of the law, under Chapter 42-165, it requires the newly established Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System (RILDS) to publish a plan by November 2023 outlining the optimal approach to establishing a comprehensive statewide integrated data system, including the creation of the position of the state Chief Data Officer.

In June 2023, Governor Dan McKee signed the Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System Act into law. Among the various components of the law, it requires the newly established Rhode Island Longitudinal Data System (RILDS) to publish a plan by November 2023 outlining the optimal approach to establishing a comprehensive statewide integrated data system, which will address the importance of public transparency and data sharing.

Presently, the Rhode Island Ecosystem is an analytic system, managed by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, that links data at the person and family level across state agencies to drive holistic improvements in human well-being. An inter-agency memorandum of understanding (IMOU) outlines the data-sharing process and permissible uses for cross-agency data. Several high-impact uses have been conducted, including projects focused on opioid use disorder and child maltreatment prevention. More recently, the ecosystem has collaborated with partners in state government to support a public dashboard that tracks Rhode Island COVID-19 cases and response, as well as internal daily dashboards for the Governor and other high-level policymakers on system capacity.

Since 1997, Rhode Island state law requires agencies to submit performance measure data and targets as part of the annual budget request process. The Performance Management Unit within the Office of Management and Budget collects this performance data and works with agencies to achieve performance goals. Agencies are required to report on program evidence and performance when submitting budget requests, utilizing a tiered evidence scale (proven effective, promising, and theory-based).

Since 1997, Rhode Island state law requires agencies to submit performance measure data and targets as part of the annual budget request process. The Performance Management Unit within the Office of Management and Budget collects this performance data and works with agencies to achieve performance goals. Agencies are required to report on program evidence and performance when submitting budget requests, utilizing a tiered evidence scale (proven effective, promising, and theory-based).

Since 2015, Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families has worked to reform and restructure the Department’s procurement process. As part of this initiative, the Department has required providers to meet outcome goals rather than output metrics across 116 results-driven contracts amounting to $90 million. As a result, the department has reduced the number of children in group care by more than 26% since 2015, expanded foster care resources for the most challenging adolescents by 55%, and doubled the capacity of high-quality family visitation and reunification services.

Also in 2015, the Department of Labor and Training launched Real Jobs Rhode Island, an innovative $14 million workforce program that used performance-based metrics and active contract management. As a result, the State reconfigured the way it manages and evaluates its job training programs to capture meaningful, long-term employment outcomes. It also created a Strategic Coaching Procurement Playbook, which includes specific strategies and sample language for using active contract management to achieve better results.

Rhode Island Works, administered by the Department of Human Services, also used performance payments and active contract management to improve its job search services, which ranked at the bottom nationally on the federal measure of work participation rate in 2015. To improve the program, the department partnered with the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab to incorporate performance-based payments for self-sufficiency outcomes and deploy active contract management. As a result, the federal participation rate improved by one-third within the first six months after these reforms were launched.