Become a Partner

Join a Data Governance Work Group

South Carolina has a lot of data about young children. This data comes from many programs across the state. The ECAC Data Hub brings this data together. It helps leaders make good choices for children and families.

To do this well, we need rules. We need people who care about data and kids. That is why we have Data Governance Work Groups.

View the ECIDS Charter

Current Initiatives

Knowing what's working for South Carolina's youngest children is essential to giving every child the strongest possible start.

Palmetto Drive to Five

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The Palmetto Drive to Five dashboard integrates early childhood data from the birth through five landscape if South Carolina to support data driven decision making.

South Carolina Early Learning Extension (SCELE)

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The Early Learning Extension extends the K-12 data system to include early childhood education data to increase student success and decrease achievement gaps.

What's in it for you?

Get support with ECIDS data submission & analysis

Direct data sharing policy for entire state

Improve program quality and effectiveness

Demonstate impact to funders & families

Meet state requirements for publicly funded programs serving young children

How to Join

Joining is a simple, three-step process:

Apply to Become a Partner

Fill out an application to become a participating program. Once this step are done, and your program is approved - you can choose members to join a Data Governance Work Group.

Sign an Agreement with ECIDS

This agreement with the Early Childhood Advisory Council lasts five years and confirms your program will follow the Data Governance Charter.

Sign an MOA with the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office

Sign MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) data-sharing agreements with the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office and any relevant initiative.

FAQs

What is a Data Governance Work Group?

A Data Governance Work Group (DGWG) is a team of people from different programs. Each of our two initiatives, Palmetto Drive to Five (PDt5) and the Early Learning Extension (ELE), has its own work group.

These teams meet to talk about how data is:

Collected
Shared
Kept safe
Used to answer important questions

The work groups do not vote or spend public money. Instead, they build ideas together. They send their best ideas to the Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) for approval.

What does a work group do?

Each work group helps to:

Pick what data should be part of the system
Agree on clear definitions and reports
Set rules for data quality
Help keep children's and families' information private and safe
Support people who want to use the data for research

Work groups meet once a month for about an hour. Meetings are held online, so it is easy for everyone to join.

Who can join?

Programs that serve children ages birth through five can join. Your program should already be part of, or interested in joining, an SC ECIDS initiative.

Work groups are made up of different kinds of members:

Program Experts – People who know the early childhood program well, like a director or coordinator
Data Stewards – People who manage and protect the data, like a data analyst
Technical Experts – People who understand the technical and security side of data systems
Advisory Members – People who give advice and share ideas, but are not required for the group to agree

Each program picks its own members to join the work group.

What does my program agree to do?

Programs that join agree to:

Send members to work group meetings
Help pick the data that will be shared
Review data requests in a timely way
Train staff on how to use the data system
Keep good records and documents

Your program will always own its data. Your program decides how that data can be used.