The Nevada P-20 to Workforce Research Data System integrates data from the state’s PK-12, higher education, and workforce agencies. With a commitment to data privacy, the system leaves all private data behind agency firewalls and uses an algorithm to de-identify data during the matching process. A wide variety of reports provide agency leaders greater insights into Nevada’s education and workforce programs, initiatives, and outcomes.
In 2020, the Nevada Department of Education’s Adult Education and Family Literacy programming required applicants to use Adult Basic/Secondary Education (ABE/ASE), including teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), with up to 60 points awarded for quality of the evidence-based instructional approaches proposed.
In 2021, the Nevada Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which funds services providing academic and enrichment opportunities for children and their families, required applicants to demonstrate that each proposed intervention meets one of the Every Student Succeeds Act Evidence Levels (Tiers 1-4). In the process of scoring applications for funding, up to 20 points were awarded for evidence alignment and completeness.
Senate Bill 390 passed in late May, creating the Advisory Committee for a Resilient Nevada (ACRN) housed within the Department of Health and Human Services. ACRN subsequently released its first biennial report assessing the current state of Nevada’s opioid epidemic, including misuse, drug-related deaths, and injury. Comprehensive analysis found that “Fentanyl deaths increased 227% since 2019”, and major gaps in services included: lack of standardized reporting, data on unauthorized immigrants or others not connected to the current treatment or surveillance systems, and a lack of capacity for community-based prevention programs across all counties. More education and monitoring was an overarching issue found as well. ACRN recommended revisions to current public health efforts, including “increasing the reporting and analytical capacities within the DHHS Office of Analytics to support sharing standardized data between public safety agencies and those monitoring local overdose spike response plans”; “establish a statewide all -payer claims database (APCD) that includes claims for all medical, dental, and pharmacy benefits with enough detail to identify physical and behavioral health comorbidities and de-identified demographic factors important for the meaningful analysis of health disparities, including but not limited to race/ethnicity, geography, sexual/gender orientation, pregnancy, etc.”; and “developing a statewide provider gap/needs assessment, using a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) framing, to determine the current provider network array and what is missing, especially in the fee-for-service system.”