Cross-agency data governance encompasses the policies, processes, and leadership structures that guide how data shared between state agencies is connected, secured, accessed, and used. The states with the best statewide longitudinal data systems—those that are delivering insights to state leaders, communities, and students—have invested in enabling policies and practices to ensure that everyone has tailored access to information to drive student success, economic opportunity, and systemic change. The first and most critical of those policies is to codify cross-agency data governance in state law.
This brief gives state leaders the information they need to understand the value of cross-agency data governance; evaluate their state’s current policies; and identify concrete next steps to make improvements, regardless of their starting point.
