Data Governance

Data governance is the mechanism (i.e., structures, processes, and policies) for organizational staff and leadership to manage data throughout the data lifecycle, while ensuring its security, exploring opportunities to share data for evidence-building activities, and using data for programmatic, evaluation and research purposes. 

ACF’s data governance goals include:

• Make data more usable, accessible, and protected to meet the operational and evidence-building data governance needs of ACF
• Meet the operational and evidence-building data governance needs of ACF offices
• Promote the reuse of ACF data for evidence-building purposes at the state, local, tribal, territory, and grant recipient levels

In support of ACF data governance, OPRE supports implementation of data-related laws and policies, such as the Information Quality Act Guidelines.  

These guidelines provide a description of how ACF complies with The Information Quality Act (IQA). The IQA was enacted in 2000 and intended to ensure the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of data that the Federal Government disseminates to the public. 

• The HHS Information Quality Guidelines , managed by the HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
• Pre-2019 ACF Information Quality Act Guidelines
• 2019 ACF implementation updates (PDF) required by OMB M-19-15

Division of Data and Improvement Data Governance Team

OPRE’s Division of Data and Improvement (DDI) supports ACF programs in data governance, which consists of responsibly managing and using data to improve the effectiveness, and efficiency, of human services programs. The Data Governance Team within DDI has primary responsibility for coordinating ACF's data governance activities. Specifically, the Data Governance Team:

• Develops ACF-wide guidance, tools, and resources that can be adapted to the unique circumstances of each ACF program office and their data assets
• Provides tailored technical assistance to ACF program offices on their data governance efforts
• Coordinates with the HHS Data Governance Board and HHS Data Council to ensure alignment of efforts and streamline data governance practices
• Minimizes burden on ACF program offices and implements requirements in ways that are useful to ACF and its programs

The ACF Data Governance Consulting & Support and Extension contracts are a resource available to support partnerships between OPRE and ACF programs in this work.

For more information about working with DDI’s Data Governance team and the resources the team can offer, please contact Valeria Butler (Valeria.butler@acf.hhs.gov), Team Lead for Data Governance, OPRE Division of Data and Improvement.