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.

Community (n): a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

COMET is helping to change communities into true collaborations. For a community collaborative to succeed in their mission, they must be able to share knowledge and learn from each other. And this requires the ability to share their findings/data in a way that is safe and easy. Doesn't sound possible, does it? Until recently, it wasn't. COMET's Data Reporter Platform can accept data across silos, across database software systems to tell the whole story of your community. Current features include graphic visualization, identified and/or de-identified (based on consent), flexibility to create and aggregate groups, export filtered data, and leverage geocoded address data to understand regional trends and more.​​​​​​​

General Features:

• Create reports allowing for customized dashboards with only the information they need and are allowed to see 
• Graphic visualization, identified or de-identified (based on consent), flexibility to create and aggregate groups, export filtered data, and leverage geocoded address data to understand regional trends.
• HIPAA & FERPA compliant 
• Share your dashboard with other users.
• Create a Dashboard Template that allows other users to mimic your dashboard and the reports within it.
• Create custom reporting groups for all of your reporting needs
• Use the Roster Contributor module to add additional reporting groups.
  
  

Reporting Capabilities: By default, all records are associated with a reporting group. A single record can be associated to multiple reporting groups.

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Data: With proper consent, organizations will be able to access the records within a reporting group in an identifiable way. You will still be able to run aggregated reports. However, you can "toggle" the underlying data to see who the data relates to, rather than just seeing the value of the data. Additionally, a single-subject report is also available, which outlines all of the milestones of a given student/person over a period of time. Different data elements can be toggled on or off, depending on what information is desired.
• Aggregated, De-Identified Data: In some cases, identifiable data isn't required or approved for specific users with access to the data. For these cases, the Community Data Reporter also allows for an aggregated, de-identified view of the data. Rather than seeing the names of who the records associate to, names and PII data will be redacted
• Geocoding: COMET will convert the addresses of the records in the database to X and Y coordinates that can then be displayed on a map.
• Exporting Capabilities: Data can be exported in Excel, PNG, or PDF format, and users can select to export a specific report, or export an entire dashboard.
  
  

This robust, customized, web-based reporting platform is allowing our Collaborative (both School-Age and Whole Child Health Collaborative) users to view and report on their data from many different angles and helping improve outcomes for children. For more information and to schedule a personal demo contact us at 585-673-3200 or info@comet4children.com.        

                                                                                                                                                                            Every child has a story...COMET has the details!

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 15.03.18

We thought it might help to provide an overview on data available in COMET because who doesn't love to talk about data?! [wink, wink] But seriously, COMET is fundamentally "child centric", meaning that the system is designed to record data that serve or relate to the child. (e.g.: Mother of Birth, Father of Birth, Household Environment, Primary Care Provider). However, the breadth of data we can store related to a child is wide and comes in many forms.

"Operational" Data Elements: These elements support the overall operation of an organization or program. Examples of these elements include when an email was sent to a parent, the date of the next visit, membership or service dues collected. They are often relevant for only a short time and of value primarily for operational purposes.

Only One Value per Child; No Change Tracking: These are data elements - such as Last Name, First Name or Date of Birth - that are unique for the child and for which change-tracking is not required. For example, First Name may have been entered with a spelling mistake an then fixed. We do not track the change nor store the incorrect prior entry. COMET has about a dozen of these fields.

Only One Value per Child; Track Changes: These are data elements - such as Address or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) eligibility - that have a static value for a given child at a given date but may change often. We want to be able to view the history of changes for that field, but primarily access the current value. COMET has over 150 of these fields

Multiple Values per Child: These are data elements that may have multiple entries for a child - such as Family Relationships, Contacts, Consents, Vaccination Records. Depending upon each client configuration, COMET manages multiple active/inactive and current/history records associated with each. 

Multiple Values per Child with History of Changes / Instruments: These represent entities that have multiple occurrences for a given child for which we are interested in viewing the change over a period of time (pre/post analysis, longitudinal, etc.). In addition to the data elements collected when completing a response, these instruments are often associated with an assessment. Some assessments are "normalized" (they follow a norm, often authoritative) or "standardized" (statistically position the child against their peers). Assessments are key for monitoring individual progress, informing the practice and measuring individual impact in a continuous improvement model. They are also the base for program evaluations for example, assessing a group of children that has received a service in comparison to a group that has not.

Let us know if this was helpful or contact us if you have more questions.

Looking for more tips on data management? Check out this blog post about Chronic Spreadsheet Fatigue.

Original Posting 10.05.18

From healthy birth weight to school readiness, Chemung County is on the path to tracking the developmental progress of all children from birth to age 5. The project started years ago with school districts wanting to look at school readiness. They worked with Children's Institute to bring RECAP to Chemung County. With RECAP they looked at assessing social-emotional health and other domains for Pre-K students with a focus on getting kids ready for kindergarden.

Jump forward a few years, enter CIDS and their infant registration program. Because of the smaller size of their county and having only one hospital, CIDS was able to interact with the families each time a baby was born in their county. At the hospital, a nurse would ask the family a few simple questions and record data about the mother and the child's health. The County had a goal of wanting to connect all this information together - from birth to school age.

The group decided to use COMET because of our connection with the Chemung RECAP team, who were already using the system. Two years later we've rolled out a case management system that records when a child is born and tracks referrals that may be made to programs like Nurse-Family Partnership or Healthy Families. As the kids grow and enter Pre-K, the system will have all their data going back to that initial infant registration on the day they were born. That's pretty cool!

Click the links below to learn more about this project!

Case Study

Project Overview

Original Posting 16.01.19

One of the most exciting developments to come from COMET is happening - The COMET Parent Portal! We have a beta version in production and one special customer, GROW Rochester, who is in a pilot rollout phase. We also have secured funding to develop phase 2 of the portal with some exciting additional features - the ability for parents to complete assessments through the portal, a messaging system, the ability to view attendance records, and much more!

The COMET Team is really excited about this project. It's been in design over the last couple years, and now with the pilot we can begin to demonstrate that connecting with parents can make all the difference in the effectiveness of programs. We hope this parent portal will serve as one way for our customers to bridge the gap between home and school, or between home and afterschool. All the research and best practices agree, connecting with parents is critical and truly makes a difference.

We hope you're excited as we are. The parent portal isn't just a new population for us to connect with, we're focused on using new design and technology as well as mobile development, with lots more new things to come. For now, all we can say is that we're diligently working on it, but as timelines for a general rollout are developed we'll be sure to let all our customers know. In the meantime, connect with your Account Manager if you're interested in learning more ASAP - maybe we can arrange a sneak peek for you! Just email support@comet4children.com.