Data Sharing

Data Sharing Procedures  

The Data, Research, and Policy (DRP) team and Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) leadership welcome data requests from institutions of higher education, individuals, and organizations aligned to the CCHE/CDHE Strategic Plan, Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), and development of outcome-related evidence (CRS 2-3-209(3)(d) and 2-3-210). CDHE aligns with OIT’s Government Data Advisory Board standards and adheres to internal data governance and privacy policies for ethical and secure sharing.

CDHE provides various publicly available data via reports, dashboards, and datasets.  Those resources can be found here:
https://cdhe.colorado.gov/data-dashboards
https://highered.colorado.gov/data/reports.aspx

Data Sharing Limitations

CDHE cannot share the following data with any external group:

• Federal tax information, including student income data originating from the FAFSA
• FAFSA or CASFA data, except for federally approved uses
• State tax credit receipt data originating from the Colorado Department of Revenue
• Student-level wage records originating from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment
• Data originating from the Colorado Department of Education, unless allowed in the CDHE-CDE data sharing agreement.

Data Request Process 

To begin a data request, submit a Data Inquiry Request Form. Successfully completed forms are reviewed on a regular basis and allow CDHE DRP team to gather more information on the request and ensure requested data are available, within CDHE's means to share, and feasible given CDHE's available bandwidth. 

Note: This process is subject to change. The CDHE DRP team may be unable to fulfill request during legislation session. 

1. Requestor submits a completed Data Request Form.
2. CDHE reviews the request based on the criteria described above.
3. CDHE contacts the requestor with one of the following outcomes:
   1. request is denied.
   2. Aggregate suppressed data request is approved and added to the project queue for completion.
   3. Aggregate unsuppressed data request is approved for the formal data sharing agreement. CDHE will work with the requestor to complete a data sharing agreement.
   4. Student-level data sharing request is approved for a formal data sharing agreement. CDHE will work with the requestor to complete a data sharing agreement.
   5. Student-level data sharing request is conditionally approved pending a review by the Data Advisory Group; if approved following that review, a formal data sharing agreement will be executed.

The timeline of this process varies by request, datasets and existing project queue. The CDHE Data, Research, and Policy team will provide an estimate date of delivery to keep all research requests on schedule.

Following the completion of a research project, findings will be shared with the Data Advisory Group and may be shared with the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. Researchers may be asked to participate in these presentations.

Data Sharing Agreements

Any party with whom data will be shared must sign and comply with a Data Sharing Agreement (DSA). The following information will be included in the Data Sharing Agreement:

• Definitions
• Data sharing parties
• Data provider and receiver obligations
• Scope of the request and data use provisions
• Specific data fields shared
• Outcomes/reporting requirements
• Data retention/destruction provisions

Information in the data sharing agreement must identify the appropriate exemption for the sharing data under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the scope of the request, and the specific data fields and years that will be shared.

DSAs may remain active for the duration of the project and are not to exceed three years from the date of the signature. For one-time data requests, access may continue for up to six months following project completion, but no longer than three years from the agreement's execution.

For more information or questions about the data sharing, please contact dataagreements@dhe.state.co.us