The "Forum Guide to Data Governance" highlights how data governance programs benefit education agencies and provide timely and useful best practices, examples, and resources for agencies implementing or updating their data governance programs. This resource is intended to address the needs of federal, state, and local agencies related to: (1) the management, collection, use, and communication of education data; (2) the development of effective and clearly defined data systems and policies to handle the complexity and necessary protection of data; and (3) the continuous monitoring and decisionmaking necessary in a regularly shifting data landscape. This resource includes the following chapters and appendices: (1) Chapter 1 explains the purpose of the document and provides foundational information about data governance; (2) Chapter 2 discusses the practices, data structures, and essential elements needed in an effective data governance program; (3) Chapter 3 discusses how data governance programs can be designed to meet privacy and security requirements while also meeting the need for data accessibility and sharing; (4) Chapter 4 discusses how agencies recognize and respond to changing data governance needs; (5) Chapter 5 provides case studies from states and districts that highlight the challenges, successes, and lessons learned by these education agencies in their data governance efforts; and (6) Additional resources include a glossary of essential terms, information from state education agencies (SEAs), related resources, and a list of relevant Forum guides.