Building the Kansas Early Childhood Data Trust
Aug 27, 2026
Introducing a new early childhood resource from Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and New America
Sprint, Marathon, Relay
One thing folks working in early childhood systems do well is share. The wins, the struggles, the how-tos, the lessons learned, the desire to leave it better than we found it. All of the work done by so many over time is driven by a belief in making the world a better place, in whatever way possible, for children and families. This work happens in the homes and classrooms with children and families, it happens in the offices and meeting rooms of state agencies and non-profits, it happens in the community research labs of universities, and it is often woven together through a network of formal and informal relationships. Early childhood is a small world, relatively speaking, but it is mighty when the right conditions and opportunities arise to do big things.
In a recent article, I was able to share a part of Kansas’ long and rich early childhood story with the folks at the Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in collaboration with New America. How do we build critical data infrastructure and governance for the early childhood system? Why? Because everyone who cares about kids and families deserves to know how those children are developing, growing, learning, and becoming the bright future we see for them. We, all of us, deserve to have the best available information and tools to do right by the children in our communities and in our state. We cannot starve a system designed to better serve our children from the right data at the right time. We need to share information and govern data to improve services, celebrate critical milestones, and help ensure we can provide the best possible place to raise a child in our communities, state, and country.
That’s a tall order. It cannot be done alone. Many hands and heads and hearts are needed and when it comes to children and families, many rise to help. As I like to say when we build from scratch or see a problem that needs a solution but others’ hands are full: If not us, then who?
Count What Matters: Building Data Infrastructure for Early Childhood Systems
The fine folks at Harvard and New America released a resource last month for those interested in filling that tall order: Building data infrastructure and governance for the early childhood systems. How Kansas approached this work is highlighted.
Their Insights to Action series surfaces promising early education policy strategies from states, counties, and cities across the country—sharing the approaches leaders are taking, the lessons they have learned, and connections to research—so that policymakers, advocates, and systems-builders can learn from and advance this work.
This resource is for state and local policymakers, agency leaders and staff, and early childhood advocates working to strengthen early childhood data systems. It draws on interviews with policy leaders in Kansas and in Chicago, Illinois, and on policy research in several additional jurisdictions. The lessons we share are grounded in conversations with the people who led the work.
TAG sharing, caring, proud of having been a part of something bigger as she passes the baton to the next gen