The Data Governance 101 Toolkit gives state leaders the tools and examples to build sustainable, accountable data systems that help them deliver on education and workforce priorities.
WASHINGTON (June 25, 2026) – Today, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) released the Data Governance 101 Toolkit, designed to help state data leaders implement cross-agency data governance, the single most important step toward ensuring that everyone has tailored access to information to drive student success, economic opportunity, and systemic change. The resource arrives at a critical moment, as state policymakers face a rapidly shifting education and workforce landscape—implementing priorities such as Workforce Pell, career and technical education, apprenticeships, and dual enrollment, while responding to broader policy and economic changes, including the growing impact of artificial intelligence. These decisions require timely, reliable information about how students move through education and into careers. In many states, that information remains difficult to access and fragmented across agencies.
Every state has governance processes that define the legal and technical requirements for sharing data within their SLDS. However, far fewer states (12 as of May 2026) have established cross-agency data governance: the policies, processes, and leadership structures that guide how data shared between state agencies is connected, secured, accessed, and used. The difference is a data ecosystem that exists largely in the background versus one that state leaders and communities can actively use to understand outcomes and guide investments—for both today’s priorities and those that will emerge in the future. The Data Governance 101 Toolkit is designed to help every state get there.
“Cross-agency data governance is a series of policy decisions that require buy-in and prioritization from high-level political leadership—from every agency that contributes data, and from the public they serve,” said DQC President and CEO Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger. “The states doing this well have made a deliberate choice to put that structure in law, so the right people are always at the table, especially through potential leadership changes. We’re seeing more and more states make that commitment so that data works for everyone. This toolkit is for the states that are ready to take that important step.”
The toolkit includes three resources. The lead resource lays out what cross-agency data governance is, why it matters, and what best practices looks like. This resource is followed by two deep dives: one that details the specific components that best practice data governance legislation must include, with a state spotlight on California’s Cradle-to-Career Data System, and another that offers a case study of Colorado’s 2024 landmark data governance law and the coalition of advocates who are helping make implementation possible.
“No single state leader can tackle this work alone. It requires agency leaders, governors, legislatures, and state boards all moving together. That’s what cross-agency data governance makes possible,” said Bell-Ellwanger. “Right now, states have to make high-stakes decisions about education and workforce pathways—and the states with cross-agency data governance in place are best positioned to respond.”
DQC designed the toolkit to meet state leaders wherever they are. Whether a state lacks codified cross-agency data governance entirely, has elements in place that need strengthening, or already has a best practice law in place that requires implementation, the toolkit offers practical guidance and next steps.
The Data Governance 101 Toolkit is available now on DQC’s website.
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The Data Quality Campaign is a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization that has been leading the effort to ensure that data works for everyone navigating their education and workforce journeys for over two decades. For more information, go to dataqualitycampaign.org and follow us on LinkedIn.
