8. Data Use

The California Governor’s Council Postsecondary Education’s Recovery for Equity team examined cross-agency disaggregated data to develop strategies, policies, and practices to help the state’s post-secondary institutions emerge from the pandemic stronger and better poised to serve all students, including informing the development of a K16 grant program which encourages grantees to commitment to implement at least four of the identified recommendations emerging from the council’s data analysis and report of findings.

The Strategic Growth Council provides technical assistance programs and guidance to help communities, particularly disadvantaged, low-capacity ones, to apply for and execute large state grants, including greenhouse gas measurements and projections, and assessing the potential impact of the projects. This assistance allows more communities to formulate robust plans and partnerships with the state to achieve      climate-goals. They have also evaluated their TA programs several times and track demographics of technical assistance providers to help diversify the pool.  

The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, Strategic Growth Council and partners provide a number of data tools on community equity, planning, regional conservation and climate resiliency, including a one-of-a-kind statewide climate assessment with local decision-support data tools. These resources are then used by localities and non-profits in planning processes and for state-supported grants.

In 2019, the Colorado Governor’s Office and the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab at the University of Denver co-designed the Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC) to facilitate data sharing for research and analytics purposes as a way to improve state policies and programs. LINC, through the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, produces informative evidence about the impacts of state programs, and those reports are shared with agency leadership and staff during cabinet working group meetings. Using this data, the lab and state agencies have collaborated on projects to improve outcomes in areas such as education, renewable energy, reentry and racial disparities in criminal justice, prenatal health, and the early childhood education workforce.

• In 2021, LINC worked with the Office of Early Childhood, the Department of Higher Education, and the Department of Labor and Employment to provide better data on the early childhood workforce, including understanding professional pathways, turnover, and compensation disparities. This information is regularly used within the Office of Early Childhood and the Governor’s Early Childhood Cabinet Working Group to determine appropriate strategies to support and increase the number of early childhood professionals.
• LINC is also working with the Office of Early Childhood, the Office of Children, Youth, and Families, and the Department of Labor and Employment throughout 2022 to link data from the Colorado Community Response program with child welfare and employment data to determine predictors of child maltreatment and appropriate points of intervention.
• In addition, the Colorado Department of Higher Education was the first state agency in the nation to partner on a pilot project with the U.S. Census Bureau to match federal unemployment insurance data with postsecondary degree completion data.
• At the state and county level, the Colorado Department of Human Services’ C-Stat performance management system facilitates data sharing among its 64 counties by providing dashboards to track key metrics and Performance and Partnerships Exchanges to facilitate sharing of best practices. The Colorado Department of Public Safety worked with The Division of Criminal Justice to gather, analyze, and publish multi-agency data, prompting recommendations improving criminal justice outcomes and equity to be made by the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

The Connecticut Departments of Education and Social Services leveraged data-sharing agreements by matching student and SNAP benefit data to automatically certify SNAP Pandemic EBT for more than 287,000 Connecticut students who receive free or reduced-price meals. This allowed the state to provide meals to 82,000 students participating in only the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, but who do not receive food assistance through SNAP, Medicaid, or other food assistance programs. The state also partnered with food retailers to allow SNAP enrollees to use their benefits to purchase eligible food items online.

In 2021, Public Act 21-1, An Act Concerning Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis, legalized the adult use of cannabis in Connecticut. The bill established a Social Equity Council, which will promote and encourage the full participation in the cannabis industry by people from communities disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition. The bill targets its equity measures at “disproportionately impacted areas” (or DIAs), census tracts in the state that have either historical conviction rates or unemployment rates greater than a given threshold. Based on statutory criteria, a list of disproportionately impacted areas has been identified by an interagency team and was approved by the Social Equity Council on August 5, 2021. The identification of DIAs allows Connecticut to prioritize those areas most adversely impacted by the ‘war on drugs’ as adult use of cannabis is legalized in the state.

Similarly, in 2021, An Act Concerning the Counting of Incarcerated Persons for Purposes of Determining Legislative Districts (Public Act 21-13) attempts to address past injustices by creating a process to adjust the U.S. Census Bureau population data provided to the state to allow for most inmates to be counted at their address before they began their period of incarceration. Prior to enactment of the act, these inmates were counted at their correctional facility address (often referred to as ‘prison gerrymandering’).

OPM is responsible for analyzing the data received and reassigning, where appropriate in accordance with the act, inmates’ addresses. Maps and a table of the adjusted population counts were published on the Connecticut Open Data Portal here to be used in the most recent redistricting process.

Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, in partnership with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab, implemented an Enhanced Service Coordination project in 2019. One part of the state’s 2020-2024 Child and Family Services Plan, it seeks to improve the process of matching clients to services across the state. The innovations include real-time use of data to inform organizational processes and procurement as well as active contract management strategies to further improve service delivery.

In 2020, Massachusetts launched the Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI) led by the Department of Housing and Community Development to support tenants and landlords during the financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. EDI was developed and is managed by a cross-agency team that uses data from the state’s shelter services, rental assistance programs, trial courts, regional administering agencies (RAAs), housing consumer and education centers, community mediation services, legal services, and Mass211 call centers to assess rental assistance demand and prevent eviction.

By pulling datasets from across different divisions and organizations, EDI senior staff have been able to better understand the multi-faceted dimensions of eviction diversion and track the success of its programs more holistically. The dedication of these resources necessitated robust data collection, analysis, and visualization. EDI’s internal dashboard is an integrated data tracking tool used daily to monitor program performance and data-driven decision-making. The EDI public dashboard is updated monthly to provide transparency and accountability and share progress with the public, legislature, and other key stakeholders.  

The Massachusetts Economic Research Department is a team within the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) that analyzes economic data and labor market information on Massachusetts, including employment and wage data, unemployment rate, short-term and long-term projections, industry and occupational statistics, and other workforce statistical information by labor market areas. Senior leadership at EOLWD uses this data to proactively respond to Massachusetts’ workforce needs in education, skill development, and industry changes. This data analysis is also accessible to the public through over 20 public economic tools and 25 public dashboards that are updated regularly.

Maryland’s Department of Human Services publicly launched the MD THINK the state’s Total Human-Services Integrated Network, a cloud-based platform allowing multiple State agencies to share and manage data. In 2021, the platform demonstrated the potential of using MD THINK to support analytics that could inform policy and programs. The Data-Informed Overdose Risk Mitigation (DORM) initiative leveraged MD THINK to produce overdose risk profiles based on linked public health and public state safety data sets. The report found data showing nearly 69% of people who die from an overdose interacted with a Maryland hospital in the six years preceding their death, and nearly 70% of people who die from overdose are Medicaid-eligible within the year of their death. The report also included policy implications with recommendations for various policy options that would help reduce overdose-related deaths across the state. The data analysis informed the design of the Statewide Targeted Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act of 2022.

The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services provides Victims Service Coordinators to respond to telephone inquiries from crime victims and parole and probation agents regarding court ordered restitution and domestic violence services. Results for America’s Economic Mobility Catalog describes the correlation between community-based victim services for restorative justice and economic mobility. Maryland utilized these data to provide American Rescue Plan resources to continue the work of Victims Service Coordinators without disruption during the pandemic.

In 2019, Michigan’s Children’s Services Agency designed new executive performance dashboards that offer a comprehensive picture of agency operations through 42 carefully selected metrics. For each major area of the child welfare system – centralized intake, field investigations, open cases, and out-of-home placements – the department prioritized the most important management questions in each of three performance categories: (1) system capacity, (2) program quality, and (3) child and family outcomes. It then designed a dashboard metric to present data for each of these questions.

Researchers and practitioners from the State, Minnesota Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board, and a nonprofit hospital combined and analyzed data from the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota State Ambulance Reporting System to help improve the State’s management of hospital capacity during COVID-19 surges. A 2022 paper authored by this partnership shows that these analyses were able to accurately predict hospital bed utilization for COVID-19 patients one to two weeks in advance.

In 2021, a cross-agency team with representation from the Department of Human Services, Department of Employment and Economic Development, Department of Education, the Children’s Cabinet, and other relevant agencies used data on family access to licensed childcare to guide funding and management decisions. This included giving preference to grant applicants in geographic areas with extreme childcare access issues. Additional analysis informed process improvements in the development of new childcare businesses, culminating in the development of a One Stop assistance network.

As part of its COVID-19 response, the State of Minnesota had a Community Resiliency and Recovery workgroup composed of external advisors – community leaders representing underrepresented groups including residents identifying as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and persons with a disability – at least monthly to discuss the progress of state’s COVID-19 response. A component of these meetings was a discussion of the public data on the Data by Race/Ethnicity section of the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. These meetings led to substantive changes to the dashboard, including adding data on congregate care settings such as nursing homes and people experiencing homelessness.

North Carolina was recognized for taking a data-driven approach to equitable vaccine distribution in 2021, removing systemic barriers to vaccine access, such as transportation, increasing vaccine allotments for counties with larger populations from historically marginalized communities, and prioritizing community-based vaccination approaches. In March 2022, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released its plan for the current state of the pandemic, Moving Forward Together, and re-designed its COVID-19 Dashboard, elevating different metrics to reflect North Carolina’s current state and guide future decision-making.

By signing the following executive orders, Governor Roy Cooper has demonstrated North Carolina’s commitment to improving equity outcomes through data use:

• Executive Order No. 143, Addressing the Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color, created of the Andrea Harris Social, Economic, Environmental, and Health Equity Task Force (see 2020 Policy Recommendations and December 2021 Biannual Report) and directed the state Department of Health and Human Services to update reporting processes to increase the inclusion of racial and ethnic demographic data; to review data to determine the impacts on communities of color; and to use collected data to allocate resources to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
• Executive Order No. 245, North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, created a task force to collect data and develop solutions to eliminate disparate outcomes in the criminal justice system for communities of color. (See 2020 Policy Recommendations and December 2021 Interim Report).

New Jersey’s Prescription Monitoring Program integrates data from multiple state agencies, including the Department of Health, the Division of Consumer Affairs, the Office of the Attorney General, and other law enforcement bodies, to power the Overdose Data Dashboard. The Department of Health uses the dashboard to make decisions about access to medications, such as naloxone, designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose and harm reduction services.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) saw a need to reduce infant mortality rates across the state. ODH partnered with the InnovateOhio Platform (IOP) to expand and enhance predictive profiling models that leveraged cross-agency data to determine those most at risk for infant mortality and design targeted interventions based on the data. The project involved the Department of Health (ODH), Department of Medicaid, Department of Job and Family Services, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

The Infant Mortality Phase 1 study identified that more than 22,000 low-income mothers enrolled in Medicaid were not cross-enrolled in WIC or SNAP benefits, which are proven to reduce the risk of infant mortality for enrollees. This study provided new insights about some of the most vulnerable residents (at-risk mothers and children) in Ohio. By leveraging the InnovateOhio Platform, ODH, in partnership with departments of job and family services, mental health and addiction services, and Medicaid, the platform securely links more than 30 data sets to form a 360-view of the clients that allowed the state to: (1) determine indicators that are significantly tied to infant mortality – leading indicators of positive and negative outcomes; (2) create models to predict characteristics of mothers most likely to benefit from interventions; and (3) explore which state programs for mothers are most effective.

Ohio continues to help mothers and children, as well as continue to engage communities through the WIC, TANF, and SNAP programs. A study using data from the IOP found 280,000 Ohioans currently enrolled in Medicaid and SNAP/TANF who may also be eligible to receive WIC benefits. This insight is supporting the state’s efforts to boost cross-enrollment processes across agencies. Through the analysis, visualization, and capabilities of the IOP, the state is able to understand the current challenges and inform evidence-based and data-driven decisions.

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) conducted original recidivism research with assistance from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania to confirm if the County Intermediate Punishment (CIP) program (i.e., diversionary sentence of probation with restrictive conditions with intensive supervision for drug and alcohol offenders), which is supported annually by an $18 million state appropriation, yields better recidivism results for individuals that participate in the program versus a cohort of similar individuals sentenced to state prison.  

Researchers used criminal history information from the State Police, sentencing data from the Sentencing Commission, and demographic data to match to a list of reentering individuals from the Department of Corrections. PCCD staff provided direction to counties on how to report their data. The study found that an individual diverted to a CIP sentence had a lower 3-year recidivism rate (25.7%) than a comparable individual sentenced to state prison (34.9%), indicating that the CIP program was a more effective and cost-efficient program.  This study has been used with the Commission’s policymakers and members of the General Assembly to solidify support for maintaining CIP funding. The CIP line was fully restored in the final version of the 2017 budget.

Supporting documentation: RIPvsINC_Infograph (pa.gov). A presentation of the RIPvsINC Infograph study was reported during a Commission meeting (see Minutes 06-14-17.pdf (pa.gov)).

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) consistently uses Department of Health Office of Drug Surveillance and Misuse Prevention drug overdose surveillance data for naloxone distribution planning. Drug overdose surveillance data is also shared regularly with the eight agencies that are part of the Interagency Substance Use Response Team (ISURT) for their use in response planning. Several agencies monitor if medication is reaching people and places with the greatest need, which has led to targeted engagement of groups like harm reduction organizations and county jails. PCCD routinely compares distribution locations (county, zip code) with overdose trends to conduct outreach where there are gaps.

Supporting documentation: Webpage for the DCCD free naloxone distribution  

Rhode Island’s Data Ecosystem, managed by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), uses state data from more than 15 sources, including health, child welfare, and human services. The ecosystem is led by a Director of Data and Analytics and a team of analysts who use integrated data to improve state programs. The ecosystem produces regular dashboards that are used for internal performance management meetings centered on the PULSE framework – Performance, Utilization, Leadership Support, and Execution –to manage and improve performance of the programs and agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services secretariat.

Cross-agency, shared data benefitted the State’s COVID-19 response in several ways:

• The Executive Office of Health and Human Services Data and Analytics team and the Equity Council convened by the Secretary worked to create a general data dashboard and high-density community dashboard and approach to the response.
• The Rhode Island Department of Health’s COVID-19 Response Unit Quant Team includes a “Dashboarding” Team that pulls data from a variety of state sources to create a holistic, cross-sector picture of the pandemic’s spread and impact on Rhode Islanders.
• Data on age-adjusted cases, hospitalizations, and fatalities were critical in identifying Rhode Island’s innovative geographic approach to rolling out vaccinations. High-density communities experiencing more severe COVID-19 impacts were prioritized for vaccination, alongside an age-based approach focusing on congregate care residents.

The Rhode Island COVID-19 Task Force, created by an executive order, assisted the Department of Business Regulation (DBR) with improving public health by ensuring business compliance with COVID-19 mandates. Rather than taking a punitive approach, the agency applied data analysis to identify businesses that might need assistance. The analysis found, for example, that some minority-owned businesses faced language barriers that impeded their ability to fully comply with the mandates. As a result, DBR partnered with community-based organizations, such as the Center for Southeast Asians, to provide signage that was translated in multiple languages.

The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office maintains an integrated data system, which links individuals being served by more than 20 state agencies and other organizations. This system has facilitated program improvement efforts and numerous research studies, including a randomized controlled trial (RCT) as a part of the state’s Pay for Success initiative to improve outcomes for low-income mothers and their babies. South Carolina has continued to expand its evaluations, including an RCT on the impact of Managed Care Organizations.

Tennessee integrated data from across its state programs to improve outcomes. Tennessee has used integrated, longitudinal, cross-agency data to evaluate cross-agency education and workforce development policies and programs, including Career and Technical Education, Tennessee Promise, Tennessee Reconnect, and Adult Education investments through federal WIOA funding. Furthermore, integrated K-12, postsecondary, and labor data —within P20 Connect TN— have enabled the study of the outcomes of the Tennessee Promise program which expanded from Knox County to a statewide program.

The Utah Governor’s COVID-19 Multicultural Advisory Committee includes a racially and ethnically diverse cross-section of community advocates, nonprofits, state agencies, faith-based organizations, healthcare and industry partners, educators, and business leaders. The committee, in partnership with community-based partners, developed the “Striving Toward Equity: Utah’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Roadmap,” a plan for equitable vaccine distribution across the state that incorporated suggestions for accurate collection and reporting of racial and ethnic data. As the state implemented the plan, missing race/ethnicity data was reduced by 50%, and vaccination rates improved for some communities – the vaccination rate among Hispanic/Latino populations increased by 463% in the same time that the rate for the white population increased by 262%. The legislature has since committed additional funding to studying race and ethnic data disparities.

The Utah Office of the State Auditor’s Project KIDS is a specialized performance audit that integrates financial, operational, and performance data to improve data-driven decision-making in the state’s K-12 public education system. By incorporating financial, operational, and performance data sourced from three different databases, the framework enables stakeholders and the public to understand resources spent and student-level performance. The school spending map and other analytic resources allow policymakers to make data-informed spending decisions.

The Utah Data Research Center (UDRC) was created by a 2017 law to integrate data from the Utah System of Higher Education, Utah System of Technical Colleges, Utah State Board of Education, Utah Department of Health, and the Utah Department of Workforce Services. Together, these constitute the “P20W” pipeline. UDRC offers “data products” (such as academic-quality research, reports, and dashboards) and “data as a product” for external researchers. UDRC annually publishes a research agenda in priority order including the primary stakeholder and research description. It also maintains a public archive of previous years’ learning agendas.

In 2020, Virginia utilized its existing Framework for Addiction Analysis and Community Transformation (FAACT) to share new data and provide actionable information as part of the state’s COVID-19 response. FAACT – a cross-agency, cloud-based, data-sharing and analytics platform – was previously used as part of the state’s work on the opioid crisis to generate actionable insights about the contributing factors to opioid abuse, as well as to collate the most effective community responses. According to the Beeck Center, since the launch of FAACT in 2017, Virginia has seen a decrease in the number of drug overdose deaths involving opioids.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginia’s workforce system launched an improved integrated data system in 2020, governed by a data trust, that improves user experience through the new Virginia Career Works Referral Portal. The related Virginia Career Works Dashboard is a data visualization tool that conveys information about labor conditions and allows agencies to make real-time, data-driven decisions. These innovative systems demonstrated a potential cost savings of more than 94% over traditional approaches.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Research and Data Analysis (RDA) division integrates client databases with data from 10 state agencies, 40 separate data systems, and individuals receiving services through publicly funded health and human services programs in Washington. Data is used for rapid-cycle policy analysis, program evaluation, predictive modeling, and performance measurement to help agencies understand how health services and other factors are related to outcomes for persons served by public assistance programs. Predictive modeling and clinical decision support tools developed and maintained in RDA’s integrated data environment have been used by the state’s Health Home Program – which provides intensive care management services to high-risk Medicaid beneficiaries – to improve health outcomes and lower costs. These lower costs have resulted in tens of millions in dollars in shared savings payments from the federal U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy maintains and uses a criminal history database that links records across courts, adult corrections, and juvenile rehabilitation over time. This database allows the institute to investigate long-term outcomes for individuals in the state who participated in state-funded initiatives and programs related to criminal justice and juvenile rehabilitation. Recently, this database has been used to examine a variety of issues, such as the processing of individuals through the adult criminal justice system during the COVID-19 pandemic, and long-term criminal justice outcomes for children involved in the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.