Publicly funded social services programs — including CCDF-funded child care, nutrition programs that feed children, and services for children with special needs — are under unprecedented scrutiny. Program scale is growing, data environments are becoming more complex, and expectations for accountability and integrity are higher than ever. At the same time, the consequences of oversight failures have become more severe. When administrative errors, fraud, misuse, or systemic non-compliance go undetected, the impact extends far beyond financial loss: essential services are disrupted, providers are destabilized, and families lose access to care, food, and support at the moments they need it most.

In Massachusetts, innovative initiatives are transforming early education and care. The state’s Department of Early Education and Care is leveraging data-driven strategies to drive access, using tools like Third Sector Intelligence analytics and the Child Opportunity Index to support communities with the greatest needs. Additionally, Governor Maura Healey’s “Gateway to Pre-K” agenda aims to provide universal, high-quality preschool access for four-year-olds in all 26 Gateway Cities by 2026, offering low or no-cost enrollment opportunities.

Young kids take part in various programs to help ensure healthy development, to get them ready for the classroom, and to help families needing child care. Because these programs often have their own data systems, policymakers, program administrators, and researchers often don’t have a complete picture of these various programs, making it hard to address broader questions that require a more holistic view. An Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) collects information across early childhood offerings in a state to report metrics securely.

For state agencies, nonprofits, policymakers, and other partners, serving the needs of families during early childhood is not only important, but extremely complex. While everyone agrees that ensuring the best possible outcomes is paramount, collecting and organizing data to track children’s progress, needs, and access to early childhood services can be daunting. Data sources are often siloed and/or incomplete, presenting significant barriers to answering deeper questions that can’t be addressed with a single program’s data, such as: How many children are eligible but not served by any funded early childhood programs?

With over a decade of collaboration with states, municipalities, and nonprofits to improve child and family outcomes, 3Si recognizes the power of uniting insights and solutions across states and organizations that are attempting to solve a common problem. This is why we built the CUSP Network – a pioneering community of practice made up of state and local early childhood agencies and their key partners. All states and municipalities that have implemented CUSP (3Si’s industry leading ECIDS solution) are part of the CUSP Network.