The Mathematica team conducted need-sensing discussions with partners to gather insights on two key questions that will guide the development of the contact list and stakeholder engagement strategy for state, territory, and local government respondents:

1. What types of data should be included in a national secure data service?
2. What kinds of questions would stakeholders at the local, state, and territorial levels like answers to, and how does that change by sector?

Below are the key takeaways from these discussions:

1. Key types of data to include:
a. Census and Demographic Data: Population distribution and demographic breakdowns (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity).
b. Criminal Justice Data: Law enforcement, incarceration, and jurisdictional public safety data.
c. Education Data: Enrollment, graduation rates, student demographics, workforce pipeline tracking, and educational spending for budget analysis and cost comparisons.
d. Housing and Public Benefits Data: Usage of public housing, benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and related expenditures.
e. Infrastructure Data: Spending on infrastructure projects such as internet access, roads, bridges, electrical grids, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure.
f. Licensing and Certification Data: Professional licensing, certifications, licensure reciprocity, and related industry data (recommend Council of State Governments as a data source).
g. Natural Disaster Data: Costs and labor related to disaster response and rebuilding efforts.
h. Public Health Data: Health outcomes, healthcare access and usage, and substance use information.
i. Scientific Research Data: Federal research funding, publications, patents, and innovation metrics.
j. Tax Data: Income tax, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and other tax-related indicators. ADC-IEBC-24-N5 10/11/24 Mathematica® Inc. 4
k. Workforce and Economic Data: Employment, earnings, occupation, industry, and demographic trends.

2. Key policy questions that could be answered:
a. Education: Pathways from education to workforce, employment during education, and nontraditional student outcomes.
b. Evidence-based Policymaking: Stakeholders have expressed a need for resources to evaluate strategies and programs. Stakeholders also need guidance on how to use an NSDS to assess the impact of new strategies, programs, and policies. Additionally, they need support in identifying what to measure to effectively evaluate outcomes.
c. Health and Wellness: Substance use/disordered substance use tracking, public health outcomes, and cross-jurisdictional public safety data.
d. Public Policy and Evaluation: Land use and public program impact across jurisdictions.
e. Program and Policy Outcome Evaluation: Data on program and policy outcomes that are sorted by similar jurisdictions, such as rural areas versus large urban centers. This would allow stakeholders to assess the relevance of evidence-based programs to their specific sectors and locales.
f. Supplemental Data Sources: Expanded use of SNAP, ACS, county-level data, and publicly available county-level data curated by NACo (e.g., County Explorer tool).
g. Longitudinal Data: Cooperative longitudinal educational datasets from state and regional collectives.
h. Council of State Governments Book of the States: A comprehensive collection of state-level data and statistics for supporting analysis.
i. Workforce and Economic: Labor market trends, employment trajectories, and dual-enrollment programs’ effectiveness.