Nebraska Early Childhood Data Coalition

Updated October 2025

Purpose Statement

The Nebraska Early Childhood Data Coalition serves as a collaborative forum for knowledge sharing, learning, and connection. We aim to promote the innovative work happening across the Nebraska early childhood landscape, share data and resources, and foster dialogue to support data-informed decision-making.

Objectives

The Coalition identifies critical data needs and gaps, supports interagency data coordination, fosters research partnerships, and advances meaningful, accessible data use to improve policies, investments, and outcomes for Nebraska’s young children, their families, and those who support them across Nebraska’s early childhood system.

Strategies

The primary function of the coalition is to build and sustain a network of experts with skills and experience in analyzing, collecting, and utilizing early childhood data. Coalition members will meet with regularity in order to:

• Create a space for knowledge sharing, updates, and learning across agencies and partners to highlight and promote the work, data, and resources aimed at improving policy and practice for the children and families served by Nebraska’s early childhood system.
• Build relationships and trust across people and systems, promoting intentional connection and collaboration to enable best practices in data administration and application.
• Serve as a responsive network to address emergent early childhood data needs and opportunities for providers, program administrators, policymakers, and the community.
• Proactively support and promote a collective vision for how data and evidence can improve early childhood systems and outcomes.

Structure and Leadership

Meetings: The Coalition will meet bi-monthly. Two meetings per year will be held in-person with 2 virtual meetings between each in-person gathering.

Leadership: The Coalition will have rotating co-chairs, one of whom represents a state agency. Co-chairs will serve a two-year term, with state agency representatives chosen in odd-numbered years and the other co-chair chosen in even-numbered years. Co-chair responsibilities include:

• Maintaining membership contact list, coordinating and facilitating meetings, and general communication.
• Evaluating coalition membership interests, needs, and priorities on a biannual basis.
• Creating meeting agendas that reflect the current interests, needs, and priorities of the coalition, while maintaining alignment to the charter.

Membership: Open to representatives from state agencies, nonprofits, universities, organizations, providers, and community partners engaged in early childhood data or research.

If you have questions, please contact Jared Stevens at jared.stevens@nebraska.gov or Katie Bass at kbass@firstfivenebraska.org.