The main purpose of community data sharing is to create a community-wide information system that supports interactions with many service providers to deliver a comprehensive, longitudinal perspective on each child, leveraging data and technology to provide better, faster, and continuously improved services. In Community Data Sharing Initiatives - Community Collaboratives - participants share information regarding the children they serve. It is essential to have a clear definition of how the sharing is managed and authorized and which information is shared. 

The Backbone Organization (Longitudinal Community Database) of the collaborative is the lead partner organization that is responsible for community agreements on data governance and data sharing, an agreed-upon approach to parent consent, collaborative goals, and the associated data set to be shared. This organization is responsible for Data Management Services: the “scoping” of data access for data sharing partners and users, defining the approach to mapping children between organizations, consent administration, and an approach to managing data quality. [e.g. duplicates]

• Legal Data Sharing - Community Agreement
• Organization & User Scoping 
• Child-Organization Mapping
• Consent Administration
• Data Quality

Data Users are partner organizations that are interested in accessing the Data Contributors’ child-related information either in aggregated, de-identified or identifiable format. The leverage the COMET Community Reporter. Commonly, Data Users are also Data Contributors, but not necessarily (e.g.: funding organizations like United Way, County, or City services).

• Aggregated & De-Identified Community Reports & Exports
• Geo-Coded Map Demographics
• Data For Program Evaluators
• Compare Your Organization To The Community
• Identifiable Data Reports & Exports, For Those With Proper Consent

COMET Operations

Data Contributors are partner organizations that directly interact with children and record child-driven information in COMET, or in their own operational database - Pass-thru Data Contributor -- that will be integrated into the data-sharing initiative. Another approach to contributing data is to provide program participation as a Roster Data Contributor through a list of your children (ID, last, first, DOB, gender). Note that contributors "own" the data they contribute in an explicit or implicit agreement of confidentiality [e.g.: Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA)] with each child’s parent.

Data Contributors - Collected In COMET

• Community Organization Running Programs & Providing Support
• Funder Collecting Data From Multiple Service Providers
• School District SEL Program
• City Sending Data (Pass-Thru)

Data Contributors - Collected External To COMET

• Student Information Systems (SIS)
• Community-Based Organizations
• Government & Heath Systems

Parent Portal

Parent / Guardian involvement is key to a data-sharing initiative. COMET’s community data sharing solution supports parent approval of the sharing of their child’s data. Recording and leveraging parent consent is fundamental to a data-sharing initiative. 

• Parents Understand & Control Their Child's Data & Can See Their Child's Information, Including Assessment Results
• They Can Provide Input On Their Child & Communicate With Those Who Work With Them

Community Reporting 

COMET’s community data sharing solution is powered by our sophisticated reporting application - COMET Community Reporter, supporting aggregated and de-identified community reports and exports, geo-coded map demographic visualization, data for program evaluators, community comparison reports, and identifiable data reports and exports. 

• Aggregated reports: Typically, such reports may pull data from multiple Data Contributors and consolidate / aggregate accordingly. These reports are authorized through the data-sharing agreement between the service provider partners. 
• De-identified child-level reports or data extraction: Typically, these reports are used for research purposes. Records are de-identified meaning that they do not contain any data element that could identify a child (e.g.: name, ID, etc). These reports are authorized through data-sharing agreements between the service providers. 
• Identifiable child-level records: It is possible to report on identifiable child data, but this data sharing requires valid parent consent and clear authorization from the Data Contributor.

Only data sharing can enable outcome measurement across organizations. So, if an after-school program and a school want to measure if their collective work has a positive impact on school attendance and academic outcomes, and to determine which programs are effective and to fund, data sharing is essential.

Ideally, every community's child-serving organizations will share data and collaborate to improve common goals; realizing the vision of a comprehensive, longitudinal community database supported through the efforts of Partner Organizations that work together in a Community Data Sharing Initiative in which its children are thriving.

Ready to join a collaborative? Take our readiness quiz.

Original Posting 12.10.16

Most organizations today know that part of their infrastructure is their data management system. And their operational excellence depends on having great data collection processes. But it is very easy to overdo the effort in the interest of keeping track of details and also providing inaccurate information by short-cutting methods. Here are a few sound guidelines to use when developing or refining your organization's data collection processes:

8 Tips for Data Collection

1. Only collect data that you know is needed and will be used.
2. Don’t re-collect data that is already available and kept up-to-date.
3. Make sure the person providing the data will have accurate information.
4. Make the survey / test / instrument as easy as possible: keep it as short, minimize effort and time required to complete, schedule it for an appropriate time (example, a time of the year that's less busy), use standard terms and be consistent
5. Have the survey / test / instrument reviewed by knowledgeable professionals
6. Provide clear instructions (purpose, how the data will be used, deadlines, etc.)
7. Do a pretest of the survey on a pilot group and adjust according to feedback.
8. Understand and communicate what laws and regulations govern the data (examples could be FERPA or HIPAA).

Original Posting 24.01.17

This post is for leaders that are trying to understand the role of social media in their professional lives.

As a lifelong learner and a technology leader in my 50's, the current environment of communications poses many challenges, as well as opportunities. It has never been harder, in my lifetime, to separate the wheat from the chaff.

However, I am convinced of one thing. It is at a leader's peril to not develop an understanding of and proficiency in social media. This is true for those in technology, education, manufacturing, non-profits, government - actually for everyone. It is not just career peril I refer to, it is organizational peril as well. We have only to look at the last couple presidential elections to see the results. Or the companies who are having more successful financial results. Or the non-for-profits that are achieving their strategic goals. A recent article the Nonprofit Quarterly’s Winter 2016 edition, “Social Media: The New Nonprofit Nonelective” reflects this.

But change is hard. And habits die hard. Many managers and leaders are at a place in their career where it is easier to lean on current strengths and write-off implementing improvements in leveraging operational databases, social media, inbound marketing and sales automation. They rationalize with reasons such as "it doesn't apply to our market" or "we never needed to do it before" or "or customers don't use it; why should we".

But change is happening anyway. So find ways to walk before you run, but start walking. My local community in Rochester, NY has a variety of seminars, professional associations and peer groups to support the journey, and to meet others that are in the same stage of learning. It is a pleasure to share and work with these professionals.

Original Posting 18.04.17

There is nothing quite like springtime in upstate New York.

It’s mid-April, the sun is shining, the grass is greening and the flowers are budding.  It is a time where people are filled with energy to “get out there” and confront obstacles and make the changes they know they need to do. It’s the Season of Renewal.

Well, if you use Software as a service (SaaS) and leverage applications over the Internet to help run and manage your organization, there is also a season of renewal.  Sometimes it is annually, sometimes monthly, but you do get a chance to “re-up” your commitment to using the tool.  This is often seen as a time to review the costs and see what you can do to keep them as low as possible, or to subtract or add functionality.  But it is also a perfect time to do some self-evaluation with your team and the way you are using the tool.

Often the value of a software tool, such as a database management system, is lost in bad data management practices and inconsistent usage and deployment.  Interrupt-driven tasks and regression to old habits don’t help either.  And a few rogue individuals who won’t follow operational procedures can really make your data inaccurate - or just plain wrong.

So, when it is time to renew your software tool, plan a review of your team’s usage. Invite input from users who are champions, as well as users who struggle with the process. Include the following questions.

1. What are the main goals for using the system? Are the goals being met?
2. What are the main problems with using the system? Why are these problems happening?
3. Do we need to buy different functions or even a different software system?  What are the costs / changes involved?
4. Do we need to change how we use the system?  What are the costs / changes involved?
5. Do we need additional team members to get an optimal value for our system efforts? (IT support, related groups, …) How can we engage these people?
6. What should we use the system to achieve in the future? How will we measure this and how often?
7. If we make the identified changes, can we see a strong return on investment for using the software?

A fresh outlook on your daily processes can sometimes yield unexpected benefits.  Consider if springtime is the right time for renewal for your organization’s software practices. 

If you are a COMET customer, feel free to reach out to your account manager for tips and support in improving your team's usage of the COMET system.  

Contact support@comet4children.com - we would love to work with you!

Original Posting 15.06.17

It’s Monday, the children are starting to roll in and you’ve already prepped your area. Scanner plugged in: check; Unsupervised Scan window opened: check; and on top of that, everyone remembered their cards. With all of your i’s dotted and t’s crossed, you waive the child up to the front desk to begin the day’s sign-ins only to realize that after about 10 minutes, your internet-based system doesn’t seem to be registering much, if anything at all. It’s happening again- the system is slowing down right when you need it most; or is it?

One of the common issues that we see over at COMET is that many of our users don’t realize the impact that this influx of users can have on their organization’s internet connection. The above example is for taking attendance, but internet connection speed can impact any software that runs using the internet, impacting the speed of functions such as database searches and reporting. Nowadays, almost everyone has a device that can connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. All those devices connecting to the internet is going to affect the overall speed. This means that when a group of children come in and all of their devices connect to the internet at once, you’ve just split your connection by as many children as there are standing before you. This alone is enough to cause a delay between each scan, meaning that your connection is throttled and can cause some of your scanner data to not register into the system.

What can you do to prevent this?

The first thing that we suggest to our customers experiencing this problem is to do a speed test at www.speedtest.net or do a Google search on “Speed Test” use the service offered by them. We advise you do this at a time when there are no children in the building and then again when the children start to arrive. If you see slower speeds after they’ve shown up, you’ll know that the internet connection is being throttled…

So, what now? If you’re noticing that the connection is slowing down there are a few things that you can look in to. First, reach out to your IT department to see if they would be able to allocate a dedicated portion of the connection to your main PC.  They may even want to look into getting a Dual-Band Wi-Fi router that allows for two separate channels for your internet connection. This way you could have a dedicated Wi-Fi channel for the members (2.4ghz) and one specifically for the staff (5ghz).

Second, you may also want to contact your service provider to see what speeds they would recommend for the number of users you have accessing the internet at one time, in combination with the activities that they are using the Wi-Fi for (streaming media, web browsing, etc.). They have staff dedicated to learning about your operations and recommending the best solution for your needs.

Third, if you’re a COMET customer, contact support! We’d be happy to talk with you in more detail about any difficulties you’re having with internet speed - we’re here to help.

Original Posting 18.09.17

Stating concern for privacy, schools sometimes will not get involved in data sharing with community organizations or initiatives. Although permissible under federal law, the schools struggle with this change – whether from having an insular culture, resistance to change or a fear of increasing liability. The U.S. Department of Education is now providing guidance for how districts can work within the United States’ student-data-privacy law - the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). They recommend that schools understand that integrated data system implementation is a multistep process. Each of the steps should be justified using the appropriate exception written into FERPA.

A few helpful concepts:

• "School Official" Exception: A provision that allows a district to share educational records with third parties as part of outsourcing a service that it lacks the capacity to perform itself, such as sharing identifiable records with an integrated data warehouse that links with other administrative data.
• "Studies" or "Audits and Evaluation" Exceptions: A provision where schools give permission for analysis of de-identified records from the data warehouse by approved researchers. Note that research projects must have an instructional benefit for the schools involved.
• Data Sharing Agreements: The process must include written agreements that detail all the terms of the relationships. School districts are responsible for protecting the education records they disclose.
• Parent Consent:  Records that have “identifiable” data that allows a child to receive appropriate interventions can’t be shared without parental consent. So if servicing the child to improve outcomes requires sharing of specific child records, a signed parent consent process must be implemented before this data is shared. Under FERPA, if the department is the legal guardian of the child, such as those in foster care or other court-ordered placements, then the department has the right to access their educational records.
• Security Protocols: Access to the data warehouse should be limited and school districts should generally have no access into individual records with the child’s data in this warehouse. They will receive information that has been aggregated where no child can be identified.  This aggregated information is also often shared with other participating organizations and agencies, often with a “Community Report Card” approach as part of a continuous improvement effort.

Here is a nice checklist from the U.S. Department of Education’s “Data-Sharing Tool Kit for Communities: How to Leverage Community Relationships While Protecting Student Privacy” - a resource full of good tips for school districts.

Getting Started: A Quick Checklist for the School

• Establish criteria in the annual notification of FERPA rights about who is a “school official” and what constitutes “legitimate educational interests.”
• Determine if the disclosure is to a school official who has a legitimate educational interest in the education records.
• Use reasonable methods to ensure that school officials obtain access to only those education records in which they have a legitimate educational interest.
• If outsourcing school services or functions to a third party, make sure your third party does the following:
  • Performs a service or function for which the school would otherwise use employees
  • Is under the direct control of the school regarding the use and maintenance of education records
  • Complies with the PII from education records use and re-disclosure requirements

COMET is pleased to support a number of communities in their data sharing efforts.  Check out our Community Data Sharing resource for more information. If you’re struggling to connect with your local school district, contact us. We have lots of experience working through these data sharing agreements.

Original Posting 18.10.17

Have you heard about two-factor authentication (2FA)? Do you know if it already is a part of your life? If you do, what do you think about it? Are you happy about it or do you find it annoying? (And the answers you give might be affected by whether you have been a victim of identity theft.)

What is 2FA? Personal credentials to access an account can include a personal identification number (PIN), a password, a pattern, an item (security fob, ATM card, smartphone), a biometric (voice print, finger ID, retinal scan). A typical example of single-factor authentication is entering a username and a password. Two-factor authentication adds a second level of authentication to accessing an account. An example of 2FA is requiring a ZIP code when you use your credit card at the gas station.

So – there is an extra step … that makes me so happy … The organization in charge of account access implements and controls the security of the access. So some companies, suppliers or vendors mandate it, some make it as a configurable option, and others do not have it. And whenever there is an extra step to a process, there will be division as to the value of the step for the account owners. Some willingly do the extra step to protect their account. Others will be annoyed and resent it. (And sometimes they will not be able to login to their own account because they don’t have, or can’t remember the credentials.)

Will 2FA really keep my account secure? 2FA is not a guarantee that accounts will not be accessed by those who should not be accessing them. Hackers, especially with criminal intent, are a clever and committed group. But 2FA is one extra layer of protection beyond a simple login. It does make hacking harder.

What is the way hackers get through 2FA? Every updated approach to account security faces challenges as hackers work to attack the new methods. It’s regrettable, but it is reality. One way that hackers get into accounts is by exploiting the process of account recovery - where a password reset occurs and 2FA is disabled. Another way is getting the credential item (such as the credit card); another is accessing the digital code used in authenticating credentials. Biometric credentials are more secure, but we all have seen the movies that get “creative” about stealing fingerprints. So with these risks, where possible, it is advisable to use 2FA for login access and a separate 2FA for account recovery.

2FA is valuable when it provides increased security along with simple usability It is likely that as more organizations implement 2FA for account security, it will be implemented in a “less annoying” way and will be expected by the account owners in order to access account information (just as single-factor authentication is today). And those using 2FA now find that they are used to it - and it is not very difficult to integrate into their approach to account access. (Such as those of us that get a verification code text on our phone when we login to a new device.) And assuredly, as more adoption of 2FA occurs, it will be continuously improved. "Cyber-security is like a game of chess.. Always trying to predict your opponent's next move." ~ Jason Brundage, Director of COMET Systems Infrastructure COMET security is a critical component of our services – providing continuous system access while protecting customer data. The most stringent technologies, protocols and practices are used in our product development. We are interested in your thoughts on adding two-factor authentication (2FA) to COMET. Click here to respond to a quick survey.

Original Posting 15.02.18

COMET began in 2008 as a way for Children’s Institute to support their work in schools ...

performing assessments, shifting away from paper completion and duplication of effort and moving toward electronic completion and utilizing a database to track what’s been completed and what was outstanding. As more organizations adopted the system for their own data collection purposes, an LLC for COMET was formed, solidifying the partnership between Children’s Institute, a nationally-recognized not-for-profit committed to supporting the social-emotional health of children, and SophiTEC, a custom software firm with expertise in database design.

The COMET Customer base has grown well beyond schools over the years. We branched into supporting out-of-school time programs with our COMET Operations package, focused on modules like attendance and membership management. In the last few years our work with community collaborative groups has grown and we developed the COMET Backbone approach which helps bring together data collected across multiple organizations and school districts. We continue to grow our features for this market by adding multi-organizational data mapping and an API to support data integration. But, we never forgot our roots, working with schools and other organizations that leverage COMET to track program impact, and rely on our COMET Outcomes package centered on individualized assessment and reporting. We weave the idea of ‘outcomes’ into all the work we do with our customers and partners, because that’s what it’s all about - improving outcomes for the individuals served by our programs.

What’s next for COMET? Our latest customers are using COMET to track specific services and referals for individual children, often in the human services domain. Recent customer use cases also include community data efforts where COMET is the chosen platform to bring data together across multiple organizations' programs, tracking the data for each child over time. Data management in the health domain is our newest market as we begin working with different groups who are focusing on ‘whole-child health’ – physical, cognitive, social-emotional, etc. These initiatives span all of the work we’ve done: from our roots in social-emotional assessment with schools, to screening and referral for various developmental needs. All of this focuses on making sure kids are ready for kindergarten, able to begin their journey in school to the best of their potential.

That’s a pretty quick snapshot of where we started and where we’re headed.

To learn more, check out our COMET Introduction and COMET Overview.