The technology behind child and family services

Tarek Tomes, the chief information officer of Minnesota, and Katie Savage, Maryland’s CIO, may be separated by 1,000 miles, but they have at least one thing in common when it comes to their work: They both have directives from their governors to support child and family services. Gov. Tim Walz has said he wants to make Minnesota the best state in the nation to raise a family. And Gov. Wes Moore has named eliminating child poverty as one of his top priorities in Maryland. Both CIOs tell StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast that they are working with agencies across the state to ensure they have the IT support they need to meet their goals. “I think approaching technology through the lens of empathy — really understanding that when people are knocking on these doors, you know, they’re knocking on these doors with a lot of other things going on in their lives,” Tomes says.

This week’s top stories:

New York State has named a new deputy chief information officer. Jenson Jacob, a longtime state government employee, was named to the role recently after serving in roles as lead enterprise architect, chief digital transformation officer and deputy chief technology officer.

Texas’ secretary of state has announced it has data-sharing agreements with nine other states. The agreements are designed to allow Texas to reduce voter fraud and identify inconsistencies like duplicate registrations. Some of the details of the data-sharing arrangements are unclear, however, because the state has not published the agreements.

A federal judge has issued an injunction blocking the Department of Agriculture from collecting the personal data of individuals applying for SNAP benefits in 21 states and Washington, D.C. The ruling arrived after privacy advocates raised concerns that such data sharing could expose applicants’ sensitive information.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.