This document recommends a set of "core" practices, operations, and templates that can be adopted and adapted by state education agencies (SEAs) as they consider how to respond to requests for data about the education enterprise, including data maintained in longitudinal data systems. These recommendations reflect core practices and principles for managing the flow of data requests, establishing response priorities, monitoring appropriate use, protecting privacy, and ensuring that research efforts are beneficial to the education agency as well as the research community. It should be noted that a corollary, but significant, benefit to "best practice" data sharing is improved relationships between SEAs and the colleges, universities, and policy organizations that frequently employ education researchers. The primary audiences for this document are data policymakers and managers in SEAs who are generally responsible for managing and responding to requests for data. An additional important audience for this resource is the research community that submits data requests to SEAs. Data requests come from diverse sources, ranging from members of the research community to advocacy organizations, the media, the public, and other parties interested in education data. This document is intended to help SEAs determine whether and how to voluntarily fulfill requests from researchers for access to education data, including confidential or otherwise restricted data. It does not focus on recommendations for dealing with requests for publicly available data, Freedom of Information Act requests, or requests from legislators or other stakeholders who may be in a position to require a response from the SEA. Although this document focuses on SEAs, other stakeholders, including staff in local education agencies (LEAs), may wish to consider adapting components of these core practices to suit their needs. Appended are: (1) State Education Research Data Centers; (2) Preliminary Research Request Template; (3) Full Research Request Template; (4) Data-Sharing Agreement Template; (5) Agreement Modification Template; (6) Personal Access Agreement Template; (7) Data Destruction Certification Template; and (8) Related Forum and NCES Resources. (Contains 10 footnotes.) [This publication was prepared in part with Quality Information Partners, Inc.]