State data leaders urge changes to P20WIN to link education, workforce and corrections data

State policy staff told lawmakers that SB 12‑50 would strengthen Connecticut's longitudinal data system (P20WIN) by centralizing administration, improving reporting and enabling better measurement of program outcomes across education, workforce and corrections systems.

"Section 5 covers changes for P20WIN — our state way to match and link data across 15 different agencies," Scott Goll, chief data officer at the Office of Policy and Management, said. He emphasized privacy and security safeguards and said the bill aims to provide consistent metrics to judge whether investments in higher education and workforce training are delivering results.

Daniel Karpowitz, OPM Undersecretary for Criminal Justice Policy, told the committee that better linking of corrections and higher‑education data would help leverage Pell restoration to support reentry and job market attachment. He said current silos prevent meaningful measurement of outcomes for justice‑impacted individuals.

Higher‑education witnesses and committee members raised concerns about language that changes 'best efforts' or 'may' to 'shall' for certain reporting duties and about perceived implications that institutions must adopt CORE‑CT for payroll or financial reporting. CSCU and University representatives urged clearer drafting and consultation on technical standards and security requirements, and warned of potential fiscal impacts if institutions were required to change core systems.

OPM clarified that the intent is to standardize data formats and reporting for the Open Connecticut platform, not to mandate a single enterprise system for colleges, but committee members asked OPM and institutions to work together to scope costs and technical pathways before final language is adopted.