As the federal data landscape continues to shift, state leaders must now, more than ever, ensure that data works for people. In 2025, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) saw important progress—from laws designed to strengthen early childhood data systems and support transitions between education and the workforce, to policies that strengthen privacy and enhance data governance. These efforts aim to not only help answer key questions but also build public trust in how data is used and protected.
Looking to 2026, state policymakers must go beyond compliance with federal requirements and lead data innovation in their states. With legislative sessions in nearly every state, and 36 gubernatorial elections on the horizon, leaders must stay focused on ensuring people can securely access relevant, digestible, and actionable information, while closing data gaps so that everyone can navigate their path through education and career with confidence.
Here are three high-impact data policy priorities that state leaders should champion this year. While these priorities do not necessarily require a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) to advance, they all benefit from the existence of a robust SLDS. To put it simply, SLDSs help measure what works, and policymakers facing tough decisions this coming session cannot afford to make decisions in the dark.
Policies to Address the Crisis in Academics and Attendance
Student learning and attendance continue to suffer. Since 2019, 12th graders’ math and reading scores have fallen by three points according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and in 2024 both fourth and eighth grade reading scores also dropped. Chronic absenteeism across the country remains higher than pre-pandemic levels. Policymakers can use data to understand these issues and make decisions about how to address them that are based on evidence:
- Use data to reduce chronic absenteeism. Students can’t learn if they’re not attending school. States must build and strengthen data systems for assisting school and district leaders in understanding attendance trends, publishing disaggregated data, and creating early warning systems to identify students at risk of dropping out of school.
- Measure what works. Without data, local leaders are left to make decisions based on hunches or how things have been done in the past—and they won’t know whether investments they’ve made in supporting student learning are working. States must prioritize collecting and sharing data that helps measure the impacts of education programs (e.g., high-impact tutoring, extended learning time) so local leaders can make decisions based on evidence.
- Engage families and communities. Parents and communities need clear, accessible information to understand how students are doing. In addition to assessment and chronic absence data, states can also share opportunity-to-learn indicators—including access to advanced coursework, and access to counselors and social workers to support social-emotional learning needs. States should prioritize engaging the communities that are intended to use this data to ensure that tools are trusted and used.
Policies that Build and Maintain Trust in Data
People won’t use data they don’t trust. Trust in data is not automatic—it must be earned and maintained through thoughtful design choices and transparent policies. Policymakers can take several steps to ensure their state data systems are designed with to build trust:
- Codify cross-agency data governance. Clear governance structures define who is responsible for how data is collected, protected, accessed, and used. Without it, SLDSs can lack coordination and transparency. By codifying cross-agency governance in law, states create the structure needed for agency leaders to make decisions together in the sunshine—building public trust and maximizing the chance of public use.
- Strengthen privacy protections. Strong privacy policies make clear how data can and cannot be used. Ensuring state privacy laws follow national best practice should not hinder access. Instead, doing so helps create strong, clear safeguards that enable students, families, and educators to use data with confidence.
Policies to Ensure People Can Navigate a Changing Job Market
The latest data from 2025 shows an increase in the number of unemployed Americans. State leaders can take the following steps to make sure their states connect education and workforce data so individuals can make informed choices as they navigate job transitions:
- Align education with labor market needs. When states connect education and training data with labor market outcomes, or integrate wage record and tax data into their state’s SLDS, leaders can determine the return on investment of different pathways. This information, when made public, empowers individuals to confidently pursue credentials that will lead them to high quality jobs, and supports policymakers as they decide which workforce programs to fund.
This is not easy work, but it is critical for states to pursue. And state leaders don’t have to start from scratch. DQC’s 2025 report on state education and workforce data legislation highlights examples of states already advancing these priorities. Want to explore how your state can take these steps? Reach out to our team.
