This document is intended to serve as a practical guide for implementing a teacher-student data link (TSDL) that supports a range of uses at the local, regional, and state levels. The guide addresses the considerations for linking teacher and student data from multiple perspectives, including governance, policies, data components, business rules, system requirements, and practices. It provides references to promising practices for high quality data linkages, including TSDL-specific processes such as roster verification and the establishment of the Teacher of Record. To meet the needs of practitioners, sections within the guide are organized around a range of uses of the TSDL and related implementation considerations for each use scenario. This guide highlights thoughtful advice and emerging practices to help state education agency (SEA) and local education agency (LEA) staff implement the TSDL in a responsible manner--and ultimately generate high quality data for high-stakes decision making. The primary audience of this guide includes all of the individuals charged with implementing the TSDL or using TSDL data in SEAs and LEAs, including policymakers, data management professionals, program staff, curriculum coordinators, technology coordinators, superintendents, and educators. Because some readers may wish to focus on the implementation of TSDL within a specific use scenario, this online publication will include links for navigating directly to the use case sections. The following are appended: (1) Emerging Learning Systems; (2) Prior Work Related to the Teacher-Student Data Link; (3) Examples of State Policies Related to the Teacher-Student Data Link; (4) Typical Structure of the TSDL in the Local Source System; (5) Lifecycle of Teacher-Student Data for Student Growth Attribution; (6) Summary Matrix: Considerations Across TSDL Uses; (7) Referenced Federal Legislation; and (8) Related Resources. (Contains 4 figures and 75 footnotes.) [This publication was prepared in cooperation with Quality Information Partners, Inc.]