(1) The department shall work with local coordinating organizations, state agencies,
local and tribal agencies, and providers, as necessary, to collect, share, manage,
and protect qualitative and quantitative data pertaining to early childhood and
family support programs and services. The department shall review and analyze the
collected data to assess:
(a) The needs of children and families for early childhood and family support
programs;
(b) The local and statewide availability, capacity, use, and quality of, and
funding support for, early childhood and family support programs and services;
(c) The degree to which the department and local and tribal agencies are
reducing inequities in access to and use of early childhood and family support
programs and services and in childhood outcomes;
(d) The capacity, quality, training, education, employment status, and
retention of and compensation provided to members of the workforce that serves
early care and education, early childhood programs and services, and family
support programs and services;
(e) Long-term outcomes for children served by early childhood and family
support programs and services, including correlations to school readiness as
assessed pursuant to section 22-7-1004 (2), to academic success in third grade, and
to high school graduation; and
(f) Other measures that indicate the effectiveness of the early childhood and
family support programs and services in Colorado in serving and supporting
children, families, providers, and the early childhood workforce.
(2) At a minimum, the department shall collect data pertaining to early
childhood and family support programs and services that includes:
(a) The number of children in the state who are eligible to receive, and the
number of children who actually receive, services through the programs
administered by the department; the demographics of said children, including
socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, language, and disability; and said children's
eligibility for funding and use of early childhood and family support programs and
services;
(b) Information concerning groups of children who have historically
encountered barriers to school readiness;
(c) Information that enables the department, local coordinating
organizations, and local and tribal agencies to assess on a continuing basis the
needs for early childhood and family support programs and services in an area and
make decisions concerning the provision of programs and services;
(d) The demand for early childhood and family support programs and
services and the existence of providers in areas throughout the state, including
information concerning program capacity, such as the number of available
classrooms; the local and statewide availability of locally, state-, and federally
funded enrollment positions and vacancies in those positions; and the number of
hours of services received by individual children and parents in programs;
(e) The number of early childhood programs at each quality level statewide
and in specific areas and the number and demographics of children served in early
childhood programs at each quality level;
(f) Data regarding the early childhood workforce; and
(g) The combination and coordination of local, state, and federal funding for
children and families to provide early childhood and family support programs and
services and the programs and services that are provided, including use of more
than one program or service by a single family.
(3) (a) The departments of early childhood, human services, education, public
health and environment, and health care policy and financing shall enter into
agreements to ensure data privacy and security with regard to shared early
childhood data. In collecting and sharing data, the departments shall coordinate
and require collection of data in ways that impose the least possible burden on
families and providers, including by reducing redundancies in data collection across
programs.
(b) The department shall use information derived through the early
childhood data system to, at a minimum, inform planning, leverage resource
allocations, maximize children's access to early childhood programs and services,
and support data-informed decision-making.
(c) The department shall identify and pursue research opportunities to
provide information to support new measures for improving the system of early
childhood and family support programs and services in the state and to understand
the causal effects of early childhood and family support programs and services that
are provided.
(3.5) The department shall contribute education and workforce readiness
data beginning in the 2025-26 state fiscal year, as necessary, to the Colorado
statewide longitudinal data system consistent with the governance practices
established by the Colorado statewide longitudinal data system governing board
pursuant to section 24-37.5-125 (4).
(4) The department, through the department website, shall regularly inform
members of the early childhood community and other members of the public of
progress made in improving the delivery, quality, access, availability, and capacity
of early childhood programs and services. Specifically, the department shall
provide information concerning the achievement of benchmarks in such areas as
increasing the number of children receiving early childhood programs and services,
improving preschool classroom quality, meeting program quality standards, and
improving school readiness, and shall provide information concerning the results of
preschool program evaluations completed pursuant to section 26.5-4-207.