Data Privacy, Sharing & Linking
OPRE develops resources related to data privacy, sharing, and linking to help entities navigate the privacy and other challenges that arise when responsibly sharing personally identifiable information (PII) to learn about or enhance services that promote the well-being of children and families. These resources share examples of different types of organizations, their reasons for sharing data, the types of data they share, and the ways they use that shared data.
There is a growing interest in sharing and linking that data to directly enhance services. This can involve linking records about a particular individual, then providing those linked records to their caseworkers, so they can better understand how to assist the individual. It can also involve linking records about many individuals, then providing those linked records to program administrators, so they can better understand the overall system and how to enhance services for all recipients. Accomplishing this while meeting all relevant privacy requirement and expectations is challenging but possible.
Additionally, there is growing interest in linking that data to support research. Researchers may use PII to merge administrative data from multiple sources for a richer understanding of the services people receive or their outcomes. That data may also be used to select participants for research studies or merged with data from program evaluations to examine the longer-term outcomes of program participation.
Linking multiple data sources to enhance their power is a common form of data sharing that generally requires PII. Linking data can lead to new evidence that can support better government policy and program design and can be attainable at a modest price. Linking data also often includes privacy challenges.
Projects and products associated with this topic include examples of successful efforts to link and use linked data, including descriptions of lessons learned. Please see our Navigating Privacy When Sharing Human Services Records page for resources that provide information on how to responsibly share PII from multiple sources.
Featured Resources
CCOULD Lessons Learned
May 2, 2023
Examining Child Maltreatment Reports Using Linked County-Level Data
January 20, 2022
Using Hospital Data to Predict Child Maltreatment Risk
January 20, 2022
Methods to Estimate the Community Incidence of Child Maltreatment
January 20, 2022
Methods to Estimate the Community Incidence of Child Maltreatment
January 20, 2022
Findings from the Transitional Living Program Youth Outcomes Study
September 30, 2021
Working with Administrative Data in Early Childhood and Related Fields
February 12, 2021
Projects on this Topic
These are ACF briefs addressing administrative data sharing among particular systems.
Discover a project that seeks to fund the linking of one or more administrative data sets to an existing employment program evaluation and the analysis of those data to track the long-term effects of policy or program interventions.
Explore OPRE's Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Human Services Analysis Execution Project for information on OPRE's approach to identifying racial and ethnic disparities in human services programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families.
Learn about a project developing privacy guidance on how organizations can securely share data to enhance services that promote the well-being of children and families.
Linking administrative data sets to program evaluation records is a promising and potentially low-cost means of tracking long-term impacts of social interventions. For the purposes of this project, long-term is defined as greater than five years.
Explore how innovative administrative data linkages can improve understanding of child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors. The Child Maltreatment Incidence (CMI) Data Linkages project identified five sites using linked administrative data to examine child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors, while enhancing their existing linked administrative data through innovative methods.
This project will develop products intended to expand the use of administrative data in analyzing long-term outcomes of federal social program interventions.
The State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study aimed to provide novel information regarding connected (linked or integrated) state data that may be leveraged to improve the ongoing and accurate surveillance of child maltreatment incidence and related risk.
The study examined the extent to which child welfare agencies in 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, connected administrative data on child maltreatment to other data sources and aimed to learn more about states’ practices related to sharing and connecting data.
Explore OPRE's research projects for reports, tips and more information on the use of data from TANF and related human services program.