Data Sharing

The data life cycle starts with defining what data are needed, to collecting, storing, protecting, using, sharing, retiring, and destroying data. A May 2019 NASN School Nurse article, "Data Governance and Stewardship," addressed who is accountable for the data life cycle within a school system. This article will discuss data sharing, the ethics, and the steps that must be taken to share data responsibly. As discussed in the previous article, policies and procedures about data sharing are available in every school district. Frequently, the guidelines pertain only to sharing personally identifiable student information and do not address the sharing of aggregated information for the purposes of needs assessments, priority setting, outcomes measurement, or for advocating for resources or policy changes at the district, state, or national level. Fortunately, guidance of sharing data and crafting data sharing agreements is provided by the Privacy Technical Assistance Center at the U.S. Department of Education. This is the sixth article in the series on data.