This report describes promising administrative data sources for evaluations of economic and social interventions.

The ultimate goal of this toolkit is to help state agencies strengthen their data and research infrastructure. It provides an assessment tool to help agencies determine their enhancement needs as well as guidelines on how to approach implementation of several different infrastructure-enhancing strategies. The toolkit is not intended to function as a technical design manual, but rather seeks to help agencies identify necessary components for successful implementation of the strategy or strategies they choose to pursue. The guidance provided within the toolkit is based on best practice and lessons learned from those that have worked on similar efforts, both nationally and in Connecticut. (author abstract)

Although early childhood data can provide critical information on children entering K12 education and evaluate outcomes of early childhood services when linked to K12 data, data from these two sectors often are kept siloed. Two states demonstrate their linked data systems and offer state strategies for bringing early childhood and K12 data together.

This document describes how state policymakers can support the development of links between early childhood and K-12 data systems. State examples are provided.

This brief highlights projects implemented in three states to integrate education, health, and/or social services data to inform policies that influence the lives of young children and their families.

This report explains ways child welfare and state education agencies can link data to improve outcomes for children in foster care.

This resource (1) discusses ways home visiting data are stored at the state and local levels and (2) recommends how data integration leaders can navigate these data storage systems when integrating home visiting data with other early childhood data.

This case study highlights Rochester Childfirst Network, a Rochester, New York early care and education program, that partnered with The Children's Institute of the University of Rochester to use linked data to support classroom instruction and teacher professional development.

This brief describes various ways states can integrate their home visiting data into their early childhood integrated data system over time. It highlights five examples of how states can approach this incremental integration of home visiting data.

As the demand to connect education and employment data grows, states are navigating the challenges of locating essential data across a number of sources as well as establishing agreements and technical processes. This brief describes common sources of workforce data and processes states use to link data across education and workforce programs. It is the first in a series of publications focused on the integration and use of workforce data for SLDS work.

SLDSs support state programs and inform policy decisions by providing high-quality, longitudinal data that cross multiple sectors of education, workforce, and social services. To achieve this purpose, SLDS teams must solve the challenge of delivering cross-sector longitudinal data from their data systems in a form that stakeholders can use. This brief describes how two states, Hawai‘i and Washington, have developed products and processes to provide cross-sector longitudinal data to inform research and policy decisions. (author abstract)

Leaders from seven of the ten states (Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin) that had prioritized data systems development goals in their Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (ELC) applications and completed at least one year of the grant cycle were interviewed. The chapter identifies five "building blocks" or strategies that states have used to grapple with their early learning and development data and plan for improved integration.

This presentation highlights the types of data collected by states IDEA 619 and Part C and where the data is located. Discussion focuses on collaboration with state partners to integrate these sources into the broader state picture of how children and families are being supported. Included are suggestions for how the data can be used and analyzed for effective decision making. (author abstract)

This interactive map tool shows the national status of data systems for Part C and Part B 619, including linked data systems. They also offer a quick glance at 10 different facets of state early childhood data systems, plus detailed information for each state. These data are based on information collected by the DaSy Center and the Infant Toddler Coordination Association (ITCA) in fall 2015. If data were not provided in 2015, 2013 data were used if available.

This state spotlight focuses on recent work in Minnesota, where state agency leaders and the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota are working together to use and share early care and education data.

States are beginning to make progress toward building and using coordinated state early care and education data systems. Although states have more work to do to ensure ECE data are collected and used for continuous improvement, promising state practices are beginning to emerge. This webpage provides links to a case study for each state.

This case study highlights AVANCE Houston, a Head Start program, that partnered with the Houston Independent School District to understand children's literacy and math skills in early elementary school and how they compared with other children from low-income families.

This case study tells the story behind Oregon's recent workforce data developments and describes the different ways they are using their workforce data to strengthen their early care and education workforce.

This presentation uses The Virginia Longitudinal Data System (VLDS) as an example to explain some best practices to implement a linked data system in a state.

This case study highlights Telamon, a North Carolina Head Start program, that partnered with a TANF agency to improve enrollment in both programs and coordinate family services across programs.

The "CEDS in the Field" series of briefs addresses various ways that different data stakeholders are using CEDS and its associated tools. CEDS is built in a way to support a variety of implementations that are all different; there is no one way to "use" CEDS. This brief focuses on how Alaska, while building its P-20W data system, used CEDS as a tool in the development process.

This case study highlights a Tulsa, OK early care and education program (CAP Tulsa) that linked data to public schools to understand transitions to kindergarten and support teacher effectiveness.

This brief explores how integrated data systems (IDS) data may be an important and cost-efficient resource for better understanding public service use among low-income Hispanics in the United States.

Integrated data systems (IDS) periodically link individual-level records from multiple government agencies. These systems can be used for policy analysis, program planning, and evaluation. Six partners in the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) worked to expand access to information from IDS in their own communities and strengthened the relationships between NNIP partners and agencies hosting IDS.

This report from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (ED) helps states refine their capacity to use existing administrative data from early childhood programs to improve services for young children and families. The report includes key considerations, eight state examples, technical assistance, and other resources.

This case study highlights how an early care and education program (The Learning Center) in Utah and Arizona linked health and early intervention data within their program and with other external programs to better serve children.

This report briefly discusses Maryland's Early Childhood Data System—covering governance, history, linkages, access, reporting, use, and next steps.

This report briefly discusses Pennsylvania's Early Childhood Data System—covering governance, history, privacy, linkages, access, reporting, use, and advice.

In July 2013, the ECDC surveyed 50 states and the District of Columbia to assess state early childhood data systems. The survey, completed by state education, health, and social services staff, focused on these three key aspects of state data systems, taken from ECDC's 10 Fundamentals: Do states have the ability to securely link child-level data across ECE programs and to other state data systems, including K-12, health, and social services? Do states collect developmental screening, assessment, and kindergarten entry data to examine children's developmental status and service needs? Do states have an ECE data governance structure designated to support the development and use of a coordinated longitudinal ECE data system? (author abstract)

This report highlights a strategy for linking early care and education and early elementary data to track children's academic progress over time.

The brief describes the early care and education workforce data landscape in the states, focusing on the three main workforce data systems operating across multiple states. It also details the challenges to aligning these systems and current efforts to address these challenges. (author abstract)

This brief discussed how states are going about building early childhood data systems that are linked to other data systems.

At present, there is no requirement for local Head Start programs to link or share their data with other state data systems. However, several states are making advances toward linking and/or sharing data across their state's K-12 data system or other services' data systems. In this process, states have encountered some challenges and have had to tackle issues related to data privacy and security, among others. To better understand some of the challenges, successes, and strategies behind this work, the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC) contacted and interviewed a sample of Head Start and state early childhood leaders in a dozen states. Based on these interviews, this brief from the ECDC examines the actions some states have taken in linking Head Start data to other state systems. It describes the importance of including Head Start data in a coordinated early care and education data system, relays what we learned about current data linkage steps across states, and presents action steps for state and federal leaders. (author abstract)

This webinar provided a high-level overview of the advantages, preparation for, and processes associated with linking Part C and 619 data with other early childhood data. States were offered an opportunity to receive specific TA to meet and assist states with their early childhood data linking.

The authors outline the main challenges states face in integrating early childhood data into their K-12 statewide longitudinal data systems. Proposals from recent grant winners are analyzed and data collection strategies are presented. Recommendations are made at both the federal and state levels to support the optimal use of early childhood data for all stakeholders.

In consultation with an early childhood data advisory group, and with feedback from early childhood stakeholder groups, the ECDC has developed a framework that: articulates principles for developing state ECE data systems that enable continuous improvement and answer states' critical policy questions; identifies the 10 ECE Fundamentals that provide the foundation for coordinated ECE data systems; and provides guidance to state policymakers to ensure appropriate data access and use while protecting privacy and keeping data secure. (author abstract)

This paper addresses the cleaning and linking of individual-level administrative data for the purposes of social program research and evaluation.

This presentation reviews the benefits, challenges, and strategies when linking state and federal administrative data.

As new federal funds augment existing state investments in home visiting, governors have an opportunity to integrate home visiting into an effective and comprehensive early childhood system. Several strategies can ensure that states use new and existing resources wisely to ensure more consistently high-quality programs that are better targeted to families' needs with less duplication of effort. Governors should lead efforts to: Promote coordinated planning and shared accountability across the agencies that fund home visiting and other early childhood programs; Develop research-based quality standards and support ongoing program improvement; and Improve data linkages to track outcomes and better target services. (author abstract)

This webinar summary focuses on how linked administrative data can be used to improve public child welfare programs. During the meeting presenters: 1) identify trends in the use of administrative data to improve child welfare programs; 2) address the challenges related to interoperability ; and 3) review best practices that will help agencies with program development and implementation.

This presentation discusses implementation issues and their implications for state IDEA data systems. Panelists from three states describe their states' linkages and discuss how implementation issues have been addressed and how linkages have been (or could be) used to improve child outcomes. *Oregon Webinar includes screenshots of their EC data system

This presentation provides information on requirements and best practices for data sharing agreements. Panelists from two states discuss key decisions in sharing and linking data across early childhood programs, the policy considerations related to those decisions, and lessons learned from their efforts.

This paper begins with a discussion of potential applications of linked administrative data in policy-level and case-level decision-making. It presents primary data integration approaches and options that are available to health and human services enterprises based on today's technologies and know-how. The paper also addresses the data architecture options and business process implications of embarking on a data integration program.

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)

This planning tool is designed to help programs and technical assistance partners assess their capacity to engage in data linking efforts and identify next steps to accomplish data linking goals based on six areas of practice.

The SLDS Early Childhood Integrated Data System Toolkit was designed for use by any state regardless of where it is in the process of developing an ECIDS. The Toolkit has seven components: (1) Purpose and Vision, (2) Planning and Management, (3) Stakeholder Engagement, (4) Data Governance, (5) System Design, (6) Data Use, and (7) Sustainability. Each component has a set of key indicators that describe the "what" is ideal for the specific component and each indicator has elements that discuss "how" to accomplish the "what" outlined in the indicator.

To support pre-kindergarten services in midst of budget cuts, States are coordinating services, funds, and efforts with other programs, such as child care, to support working families by offering comprehensive care for their children that is also high quality and supports children's development. The following tables provide examples of pre-kindergarten and child care coordination initiatives and highlights the income eligibility requirements, funding streams, and eligible provider requirements for both programs. (author abstract)

This paper provides both general and specific guidance to states and localities interested in building robust integrated data systems that take full advantage of all that these systems have to offer.

This brief suggests answering questions about setting policies for the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) by linking case-level information on subsidized families and children with detailed policies from the federally funded CCDF Policies Database.

This publication is 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 TSDLspecific processes such as roster verification and the establishment of the Teacher of Record. The information and opinions published here are those of the Forum and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education or NCES.

This presentation provides a historical policy context for integrating data systems. It also reviews the benefits and challenges of integrating data with tips for how to integrate data, such as common data definitions, incentivizing states and localities, and providing education and technical assistance to integrate data.

This webinar provided a high-level overview of the advantages, preparation for, and processes associated with linking Part C and 619 data with other early childhood data. States were offered an opportunity to receive specific TA to meet and assist states with their early childhood data linking.

This supplemental resource, known as the SLDS Early Childhood Integrated Data System Self-Assessment, was created to help states assess their needs as they integrate early childhood data into an early childhood data system and the P-20W+ (early childhood through workforce and beyond) statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS).

This brief highlights a range of federal, state, and local administrative data sources that could be used to address policy-relevant early care and education (ECE) questions. It describes data sources across early care and education, health, child welfare/public assistance, and employment. It offers examples of the types of ECE research questions that could be answered when data sources from these areas are linked with other sources.

This resource addresses how to incorporate Head Start Data in an SLDS by discussing reasons for integrating Head Start data, who to involve when, and strategies for engagement.

This webinar summary is based on presentations from states on how Head Start fits into their statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS). Missy Cochenour of the State Support Team (SST) explained the goals of SLDSs and how they align with Head Start. Ben Allen (Vermont) described Head Start and Early Head Start, while Kimberly Shinn-Brown (Missouri) discussed which data are collected, aggregated, and analyzed through Head Start. Colleen Murphy (Utah) presented on how Utah and Head Start work together on the state's SLDS, and Kathy Thornburg (Missouri) discussed why Head Start data are critical to answering school readiness questions.

This resource provides examples of policy questions that state leaders can answer when home visiting data are combined with other early childhood data. Depending on the policy question(s) to be answered, home visiting data can be integrated in one of three ways: (1) across home visiting models, (2) with data from other early childhood services, or (3) with longitudinal data, to examine impact on both short- and long-term child outcomes.

The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems, the DaSy Center, was funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to provide technical assistance (TA) to states to support them in developing or enhancing Part C and Part B Section 619 (Part B 619) data systems. TA also will assist Part C and Part B 619 state agencies in participating in the development of integrated early childhood data systems and longitudinal data systems in their states. To inform the DaSy Center's work, the Center collected information about the current status of Part C and Part B 619 state data systems, priorities for improvement, and areas where the states would like TA. State Part C and Part B 619 coordinators, their respective data managers, and other state staff completed an online survey over the summer of 2013. Responses were obtained from 94% of the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico for Part C and from 96% for Part B 619. This report summarizes what was learned about the current status of Part C and Part B 619 data systems and where states are in moving to improve their data systems. (author abstract)

Early childhood data are a key component in developing robust P-20W data systems. This webinar summary focuses on how states can design early childhood data systems that a) address key issues, on the local, state, and national levels; b) are improvement-driven as opposed to compliance-driven; and c) can be coordinated with K-12 and other key program data. Elizabeth Laird spoke about the work of the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (ECDC), and Elliot Regenstein of EducationCounsel LLC and the Illinois Early Learning Council reviewed the process of developing early childhood (EC) data systems in three states.

This resource provides a map of home visiting and other early childhood data for states. It outlines how to (1) compile a list of home visiting programs in a state, (2) identify available home visiting data and linkages, and (3) create a data map.

In this paper we set out a research agenda for improving linked data files for policy research considering research that needs to be conducted concerning coverage error, nonresponse error, sampling error, measurement error, editing/imputation, documentation of metadata and production of timely linked data files.

The Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program offers a variety of support resources.

This brief presents highlights of an analysis of a survey of 48 states and the District of Columbia on state implementation of ten essential components of coordinated early care and education (ECE) data systems. Suggestions are offered in response to the finding that current systems, though they collect large amounts of data on children, providers, and program sites, are often inadequate for the needs of state ECE policymakers in assessing data and formulating policy.

This issue brief captures the current status of states' ability to link data across agencies, the opportunities and challenges they face, and how leading states are breaking down silos to ensure data follow individual students over time to improve success. It also describes processes states can use in developing and implementing their cross-agency data sharing efforts.