When families, policymakers, and early childhood service providers have access to data, they can make better decisions to support early childhood experiences and outcomes. This page is a collection of resources that explore the importance of state investment in early childhood data systems, how they benefit stakeholders, and how to make these improvements a reality.
This resource is meant to help states understand the return on investment of improving their early childhood data capacity, provide guidance about how to make the improvements they need, and support them in laying a strong foundation for connecting robust early childhood data with statewide longitudinal data systems.
Early Childhood Administrators Value Data for Decisionmaking
DQC’s 2024 national poll of early childhood administrators surveyed them to find out how they are collecting, using, and reporting data. We found that administrators value data and want better access to it, but data collection and reporting requirements tend to be inefficient—if not overwhelming.
Roadmap for Early Childhood and K–12 Data Linkages
DQC and the Early Childhood Data Collaborative created this roadmap to explore seven key areas to inform policy discussions and decisions.
Early Childhood Data Systems: Responding to COVID-19 and Building for the Future
This resource explains that state leaders need early childhood data systems to understand which families are receiving services and make decisions about where to focus early childhood resources and efforts.
