Nebraska's Early Childhood Integrated Data System
What is ECIDS?
The Nebraska Early Childhood Integrated Data System, or ECIDS (pronounced “e-kids”) represents a collaboration between state agencies, providers, organizations, and communities to collect, connect, integrate, and report information about the early childhood population and programs across Nebraska. ECIDS uses a modern, cloud-based technology to link data across systems and will protect privacy by honoring the data access rules from the source systems.
ECIDS is designed to equip communities with the data and information necessary to deliver and coordinate early childhood services by informing decision-making at the state, community, and program levels. An ECIDS can answer many program and policy related questions. The graphic shows how an ECIDS incorporates data from multiple early childhood programs and services in a state to help answer policy and research questions that cannot be answered by any single program’s data system. This figure shows examples of programs that may contribute data to an ECIDS.
Why is ECIDS important?
Early childhood stakeholders struggle to access useful information about the status of early childhood services and programs to inform policy and practice. These data are often provided through various websites and program reports and are rarely integrated across the sources from which they originate. Compiling and integrating early childhood data provides context about the community needs, program availability, and collective impacts, improving responsiveness to the needs of young children and their families.
The objective of ECIDS is to integrate relevant data needed to support access, quality, coordination, and alignment of early childhood programs and services throughout Nebraska. The system strives to provide useful, accurate, and timely data to the public related to early childhood programs and services.
A useful approach for organizing data in early childhood is the EASI framework from ECDataWorks, which allows the state to bring together comprehensive early childhood data in a meaningful way. Integrating data across these four areas, described below, yields critical information to help policymakers and community leaders assess needs, evaluate impact, and customize solutions for their communities.
Eligibility
Identify programs that match service needs
Access
Assess the location and characteristics of current service providers
Services
Monitor the service status of children
Impact
Compare current service landscape to available outcome metrics
What is the ECIDS Data Explorer?
Nebraska has leveraged Preschool Development Grant (PDG) and American Relief Plan Act (ARPA) funding to support the creation of the ECIDS Data Explorer, an interactive tool utilizing the EASI framework, that allows users to easily access and compare comprehensive early childhood data in one place.
The current version represents a minimum viable product (MVP) designed to allow stakeholders to begin to review and use the tool while recommending next steps and enhancements. Many data on early childhood programs or services are missing or may be incomplete, but subsequent versions will add functionality and integrate additional data sources to meet the needs of providers and policymakers. We greatly appreciate your feedback as we work to improve the Data Explorer. Please email nde.ecids@nebraska.gov if you have any feedback or questions.