Joint Technology Committee approves bill to move SLDS first report from April to September 2026

The Joint Technology Committee voted 4-2 on March 1 to seek legislation that would move the first required report for the statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) from April 15, 2026, to September 15, 2026.

The SLDS presentation was delivered by Michael McReynolds, legislative liaison for the Office of Information Technology (OIT); Amy Bica, chief data officer; and Dr. Heather McGilvray, program manager for the SLDS at OIT. McReynolds opened by describing the presentation and the team’s request for legislative assistance. Bica said the project responds to what she called “the big blur,” a recognition that “the lines that exist between education, post secondary education, and the workforce are really arbitrary,” and that a cross‑agency longitudinal system would help policymakers and the public understand long‑term outcomes.

Why it matters: presenters told the committee the SLDS will link education, higher‑education and workforce datasets across several state agencies to support policy, program evaluation and student decisionmaking. The system will use Informatica for data cataloging, Snowflake for core storage/analytics, and Tableau for reporting, with an identity‑resolution capability to match individuals across datasets. OIT said the initiative is intended as an ongoing program, not a one‑time report.

OIT outlined the current schedule and a procurement decision that drove the requested change. Dr. Heather McGilvray said the governance board recommended conducting a full request‑for‑proposal process (RFP) rather than selecting from a pre‑vetted vendor pool. The RFP is publicly posted; OIT said responses are due March 31 and that 29 vendors joined a recent solicitation call. McGilvray said the vendor selection is expected in fiscal Q4 (calendar/quarter visuals in the presentation correspond to Q4 of fiscal year 2025) and that the project team plans a July 2025 start with ongoing implementation after vendor selection.

OIT emphasized the requested date change would carry no fiscal impact. McReynolds told the committee the shift “is not a request for additional funds” and that the fiscal note would remain unchanged because funding had already been projected into later fiscal years.

Committee questions focused on procurement timing, prior outreach to vendors and industry, data governance and which funds would pay for the cross‑agency work. Bica clarified that while an SLDS existed previously inside the Department of Education with federal grant support, the cross‑agency initiative under discussion uses state funds. She also said OIT had gathered information from other states and stakeholders but had not executed a formal RFI before issuing the RFP.

Action: Senator March (mover) asked the committee to draft legislation moving the report date to September 15, 2026. On the roll call the committee recorded the following votes: Bazely — Aye; Pascoe — Aye; Rodriguez — No; Weinberg — No; Marchman — Aye; Madam Chair — Yes. The motion passed 4–2.

What remains: OIT said it will continue discovery work on data availability and quality, finalize legal data‑sharing frameworks and have cross‑agency reviewers evaluate RFP responses. The governance board plans to sign its charter at the March meeting and begin drafting data‑sharing agreements for participating agencies.