State Longitudinal Data System: governing board standards for the privacy, confidentiality and security of the data

Senate Bill 2371 of the 2011 Regular Session has the appropriate state agencies develop and maintain a State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), a multiagency database that gives stakeholders and policymakers access to data on state residents from birth to the workforce.

As amended in 2014, the act has the Mississippi Department of Education, the Mississippi Community College Board, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the State Workforce Investment Board, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, the Mississippi Department of Human Services and the State Early Childhood Advisory Council provide data to the system under the provisions developed by the SLDS Governing Board established in Section 37-154-3.

The governing board is composed of a representative from each agency or entity providing data to the system, develops and promulgates all rules and regulations governing the system's activities, and may contract with a third party to manage and maintain the system and to ensure that the board's policies and procedures are enforced. The board is responsible for defining and maintaining standards for privacy, confidentiality and security of data.

All data provided to the system must be provided in accordance with all local, state and federal laws governing the protection and sharing of such data, and nothing in the act prevents an agency or entity from maintaining control of its own data.

The act bases the system on one housed, developed and maintained by the National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (nSPARC) at Mississippi State University, with application hosting by the State Data Center that the Department of Information Technology Services operates until the board approves another entity. The act took effect July 1, 2013.