OPRE Research Brief; 2018-67 Shaw, Sara. Lin, Van-Kim. Maxwell, Kelly. Child Trends. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Trends 2018
This resource is intended to provide guidance to early childhood researchers to prepare data sharing agreements related to the use of administrative data from state agencies. A data sharing agreement is a formal document of agreement between two entities that specifies the conditions under which data are to be shared. Data sharing agreements typically specify what (and how) data will be shared, procedures to safeguard the data, and how the data are to be used. Although the term data sharing agreement is used throughout this resource, state agencies may use several alternative terms to refer to these documents (e.g., memorandum of understanding, written agreement, data security agreement, information sharing plan, memorandum of agreement). Researchers should adopt the terminology used by the state agency with whom they are partnering.