Resource Library

We are writing to encourage you to work with local educational agencies and early childhood partners in your states and communities to serve more of our youngest learners in high-quality preschool1 through a mixed delivery approach. A mixed delivery approach involves a coordinated effort on the part of States and local communities to support preschool programs across a range of quality settings, building on the expertise and capacity of existing providers and leveraging existing Federal, state, and local funding.

The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD), in partnership with the Office of Child Care (OCC) and Office of Head Start (OHS), recently announced the release of a draft Tribal Early Childhood Facilities Combined Application Guide in the Federal Register. This draft resource aims to streamline application submission and review processes for Tribal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Head Start grant recipients that jointly apply to construct, renovate, or improve early childhood facilities using both CCDF and Head Start funds. ECD is soliciting public comment on the draft application guide during a 60-day comment period.

The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD), in partnership with the Office of Child Care (OCC) and Office of Head Start (OHS), recently announced the release of a draft Tribal Early Childhood Facilities Combined Application Guide in the Federal Register. This draft resource aims to streamline application submission and review processes for Tribal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Head Start grant recipients that jointly apply to construct, renovate, or improve early childhood facilities using both CCDF and Head Start funds. ECD is soliciting public comment on the draft application guide during a 60-day comment period.

This policy statement, released jointly by the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, re-affirms that all young children with disabilities should have access to high-quality inclusive early childhood programs that provide individualized and appropriate support so they can fully participate alongside their peers without disabilities and achieve their full potential.

In early childhood, a unique identifier (UID) is an identifier used to associate children, workforce, classes, program sites, and families with their respective data. This brief will support ECIDS leaders in understanding UIDs; communicating the benefit of assigning UIDs in early childhood; understanding possible approaches to assigning UIDs; and identifying key considerations in carrying out the work.

Knowing how many distinct children have been served by one or more early childhood programs and/or services is a foundational metric for a host of early childhood policy and programmatic analyses. This document defines "Distinct Count" and describes the factors contributing to a distinct count.

This session will focus on the value, challenges, lessons learned, and existing resources related to the integration of data from multiple partners, systems, programs, and agencies. A specific focus will be placed on the value of an Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS).

This session will include experts in U.S. Privacy Laws including FERPA, HIPAA, the Confidentiality rules under IDEA and the Protections for the Privacy of Child Records under the Head Start Regulations and will guide grantees through crucial discussions, considerations, resources, exemplar practices and pitfalls to avoid when it comes to the sharing of data across data systems and organizations.

A foundational aspect of data sharing and integration is data governance. It is at the core of all data sharing capability and processes. Establishing a data governance process sets the foundation for work among agencies and communities to share critical information. This session will assist with understanding the key elements of data governance and strategies for establishing a strong data governance framework.

During the opening session for Using A Cross-Agency Data System to Support Mixed-Delivery Systems strand , presenters reviewed some of the innovative solutions to 2020’s most pressing data issues and the organizational needs to support the ongoing data analytic and information needs across state agencies.