Data Sharing

Update – July 2026: Due to current statutory implementation work and other agency priorities, CDHE is temporarily closed to new external data sharing requests. We appreciate your patience and will provide updates when the request intake resumes.

Data requests can be made through the Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC) for Colorado postsecondary data. CDHE cannot provide technical assistance for LINC data.

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 Request Categories

Data sharing requests are subject to student privacy considerations. There are three categories of data sharing requests:

Aggregate Data with Suppression (for data not already publicly available)
This category includes summary‑level information that is grouped to prevent identification of individuals. Suppression rules (such as minimum cell sizes) are applied to protect privacy when counts are small or could inadvertently reveal sensitive information. This type of data is typically shared when student-level data is not necessary, individual identification risk must be minimized, and when the data are not available on CDHE’s public dashboards or reports. Sharing in this category is typically faster and more straightforward. Aggregate data with suppression can be shared without a data sharing agreement.
Aggregate Data without Suppression
These requests involve summary information where low student counts are not suppressed. Aggregate data without suppression requires a data sharing agreement to be in place prior to CDHE sharing data externally.
Student‑Level Data
Student‑level data requests involve detailed, record‑level information about individual students. Because this category carries the highest privacy and security considerations, CDHE evaluates these requests carefully and shares only when permitted under statute, FERPA, and internal data governance policies. Student level data sharing requires a data sharing agreement, strict security measures, and clear evidence of legitimate educational research needs or public benefit to be in place prior to CDHE sharing data externally.

Aggregate guidelines

Aggregate data (including tables, charts, and interactive visualizations) that will be published or presented in a public setting or shared outside of state government are sent to the institutional Data Advisory Group (DAG), pursuant to CRS 23-1-145(3) for data quality review prior to sharing or publication.

Suppression guidelines

CDHE data suppression guidelines are subject to change based on advice from the CDHE Data Advisory Group (pursuant to CRS 23-1-145(3)).

Following national best practices from the US Department of Education’s National Center on Education Statistics (NCES SLDS Technical Brief: Statistical Methods for Protecting Personally Identifiable Information in Aggregate Reporting) and Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC: Frequently Asked Questions – Disclosure Avoidance), CDHE suppresses aggregate student counts of less than 10 when publishing data publicly to protect student privacy, ensure compliance with FERPA regulations, and align with PTAC standards. For datasets from other Colorado state agencies to which CDHE has access, CDHE adheres to each agency’s suppression guidelines. For example, the Colorado Department of Education has a minimum cell size of 16 (aligned to Colorado’s Consolidated State Plan Under the Every Student Succeeds Act) for publicly posted resources.

Exception: To ensure accuracy in CDHE published reports, dashboards, and resources, data submitted by institutions used in CDHE reports and published data tables is shared back with the institutions for data review without suppression. Except in exceptional circumstances when a quick turnaround is necessary, this review period will be long enough to allow for a substantive response.

Data Sharing Priority Order

Data sharing requests are fulfilled pending Department capacity and feasibility of the request, and based on the following priority order:

Audit requests
Federal requests
State legislative requests
Governor’s office requests
Requests from external partners related to federal requirements
CDHE requests to complete statutory requirements or RFIs
Other state agency requests
CDHE requests for CCHE prioritized research projects
Institutional requests
Third-party researcher requests

Data may be provided to Colorado public institutions or governing boards for research purposes, but only under the same restrictions of confidentiality and data security as apply to the Department. In most cases, aggregate data files will be provided. If unit-record data is required for a special analysis, the file will have recoded student identification numbers that cannot be traced back to the individual students. Requests may be made in writing for the inclusion of social security numbers; requests must be justified on the analytical requirements of the proposed study and must be approved by the Chief Policy and Research Officer of the Department. For requests involving aggregate unsuppressed data or unit-record data, a data sharing agreement between the institution and Department is required.
An institution or governing board may request copies of the data submitted by their institution(s) for research purposes. Institutional requests for aggregate or student data from institutions outside of their governing board are subject to CDHE’s suppression. Unsuppressed data may be shared if a data sharing agreement is in place between CDHE and the requesting institution/governing board.

These current data sharing practices are subject to change based on future data policy creation by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (pursuant to CRS 23-1-145(4)).

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.

Requestor submits a completed Data Request Form.
CDHE reviews the request based on the criteria described above.
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

LINC

For data requestors that require cross-agency data (one or more Colorado state agencies), the Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC) provides timely and cost-efficient research, evaluation, and analytics. Data receivers should start their request by visiting the Linked Information Network of Colorado | Connecting Data to Solve Real World Problems for specific research questions.

Open Records Requests

For an Open Records Request, please contact Department PIO at CDHE@dhe.state.co.us or at 303-974-2495 to be put in contact with the appropriate staff member. The Colorado Department of Higher Education is committed to transparency and open government. Please refer to our Colorado Open Records Act Policy.