DATA GOVERNANCE - Cross-Agency Data Governance Accelerates State Education and Workforce Data Capacity

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle

Cross-agency data governance is presented as a necessary foundation for linking, securing, accessing, and using education and workforce data so decisions can better support student achievement and smooth career transitions. The brief explains what cross-agency governance entails, why governance authority and accountability matter, and why many existing governance structures fall short. It outlines common state challenges around access, decisionmaking, transparency, and vision, then argues that codified governance can improve accountability, policy alignment, and privacy and security.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Data Governance

Cross-Agency Data Governance Accelerates State Education and Workforce Data Capacity

What Is Cross-Agency Data Governance?

What Is an SLDS?

Why Data Governance?

Common Challenges and How Codified Governance Helps

DATA GOVERNANCE Cross-Agency Data Governance Accelerates State Education and Workforce Data Capacity Cross-agency data governance is not optional—it is the foundation for making data work for people, communities, and leaders, who are all making decisions that shape people’s journeys from education to the workforce. The states with the best statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs)—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. What Is Cross-Agency Data Governance? 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. Cross-agency data governance helps ensure that education and workforce data brought together in an SLDS can be responsibly linked and used to inform decisions that support student achievement and successful transitions into careers.1 Effective cross-agency data governance includes both clear processes and designated leadership for making those decisions. But not all governance bodies are created alike. Many states have established a crossagency governing body that brings together policy and/or technical experts from the state’s education and workforce agencies to create guardrails and guidance for how data is shared, secured, and used. But too often, these bodies are structured as committees or task forces that lack any real decisionmaking authority about data transparency, data access, and how data should inform policy. 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 a sustainable, statutorily required cross-agency data governance structure that defines a clear purpose, roles, and responsibilities for participating agencies and ensures accountability for transparency and data quality, privacy, and security. The difference is a data system that exists largely in the background versus one that state leaders and communities can actively use to understand outcomes and guide investments. WHAT IS AN SLDS? For decades, states have been investing in SLDSs that connect individual-level data from participating state agencies—at a minimum, early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and workforce—over time. These systems have the potential to provide valuable insights that could help people seamlessly navigate their journeys through education and the workforce. But this potential is rarely fulfilled because governance of these systems is too often ad hoc, temporary, or disrupted during leadership transitions. 1 An SLDS can also link data from other state agencies such as the Department of Health and Department of Corrections, with the goal of providing more holistic information about individuals’ education and workforce journeys. This brief focuses primarily on linking P–20W (early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and workforce) data. Data Governance 101: Cross-Agency Data Governance Accelerates State Education and Workforce Data Capacity 2 Why Data Governance? While states have governance processes (e.g., datasharing agreements, security policies) established for their SLDSs, those processes do not provide the SLDS with clear leadership, a purpose, or accountability for how decisions are made. Without that clear authority, decisions about how data is connected, secured, and accessed can

FAQs

How does codified cross-agency data governance help states?

It establishes clear leadership and authority for data use, improves accountability through legal and public oversight, aligns agencies under a shared multiagency purpose, and designates responsibility for privacy and security protections.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle