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Early-childhood data project stalls as Health & Human Services pauses participation; advocates urge continued NDE funding for eKIDS
Summary
A state early-childhood data integration effort (eKIDS) has progressed under the Department of Education but stalled when Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services declined to participate in final data-sharing agreements; First Five Nebraska and NDE urged maintaining budgeted funding to keep the project viable for future federal grants.
Dr. Katie Bass, policy research manager for First Five Nebraska, and Department of Education witnesses asked the Appropriations Committee to preserve funding for Nebraska’s Early Childhood Integrated Data System — eKIDS — after the Department of Health and Human Services said it would not finalize participation in December, citing resource and legal concerns.
Bass described eKIDS as a cloud-based backbone technology built by the Nebraska Department of Education to integrate child- and program-level data across early-childhood providers without creating a single public identifier. She said stakeholders including Head Start, providers, and interagency councils contributed to planning that began after a 2019 federal preschool development grant planning award and that Nebraska has made “significant strides” in development.
Bass told the committee NDHHS’s withdrawal threatens Nebraska’s ability to demonstrate integrated systems in future federal grant competitions and to evaluate outcomes across subsidy, preschool, Head Start and other services. She said NDHHS’s underlying systems were designed to track activities, not long-term child outcomes, and that eKIDS would allow outcome tracking without costly overhauls of source systems.
Dr. Bass and other proponents asked the committee to consider a Department of Education budget line (about $250,000 in the current request) that would keep the backbone and coordination functions running, preserve partnerships, and position Nebraska to compete for another round of federal Preschool Development Grant funding.
Committee members asked about the timing and the reason NDHHS cited for pausing: Bass said NDHHS cited staff-resourcing constraints and legal questions around data sharing. Bass said other partners remain engaged and that a modest NDE-funded continuation would maintain momentum and interoperability even if NDHHS participation took longer to resolve.
No committee action was taken at the hearing; witnesses urged continued investment for competitiveness in federal grant processes and for better cross-agency outcome information.
