The Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge (ELC) encouraged states to demonstrate their commitment to integrating and aligning resources and policies across all of the state agencies that administer public funds related to early learning and development. Building or enhancing an early learning data system was an optional section of the application, and 30 of the 37 applicants addressed this priority. In 2011, nine states, six of which addressed the data priority, won competitive ELC grants. An additional five states are eligible to apply for smaller grants in 2012, and all but one of these states addressed the data priority in their initial applications. Some states that chose not to address this priority in their ELC applications indicated that they were already working on early learning data systems through other federal grants, including the State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant or grants that support State Advisory Councils on Early Childhood Development and Care. This issue brief analyzes the 30 state plans to build or enhance early learning data systems (section E2), with a more in-depth review of the states with the top 17 scores from this section. (author abstract)