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.

3Si’s Child Universal Success Platform (CUSP) is a leading Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS), leveraging 3Si’s decade-long experience helping state and local agencies aggregate, integrate, analyze and use early childhood data to support their policy planning and decision-making. What sets 3Si’s CUSP apart from other ECIDS? Here are eight reasons why our innovative solution is transforming states’ view of the early childhood landscape. Data on the full child population to provide insight into the early childhood market: By modeling the entire child population, including those children not served in formal programs, CUSP offers a holistic view of the early childhood landscape, including a more complete understanding of the demand, supply, and accessibility of early childhood services in a state, city, or community.