CIID’s Expanded Mission to Include Part C: What Does this Mean for Our Work?

Over the past decade, CIID has expanded the use of the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) and developed Generate, a tool that automates IDEA Part B EDFacts reporting. But we understand that the needs of Part C Lead Agencies (LAs) and other agencies that support infants, toddlers, and families have different needs around data and data systems. We are humbly excited to be joining the Part C community, ready to learn, and to share what we have learned through supporting Part B state education agencies (SEAs) for a decade.

Our approach has been to build a visionary tool with a small group of like-minded stakeholders with the goal of improving the efficiency, sustainability, and replicability of processes used to prepare IDEA data submissions. We believe stakeholders are critically important to identifying the data management problems that must be solved; we develop products (solutions) using common data standards based on state need and frequently in partnership with state education staff.

In 2026, we are starting an (almost) new technical assistance center as CIID Part C builds from the wisdom gained in Part B. Some of our core beliefs: data standards are beneficial for efficient management of data, standards mitigate data failures (e.g., after staff turnover; when reporting requirements change), and process documentation is critically important for strong data management. While we will not operate the same level of support in Part C as in Part B until we have the Part C data standards well represented in CEDS, we will be actively building behind the scenes. Please consider joining us if you in a LA that wants to improve your data management. Your participation will strengthen Part C data standards, inform new Part C reports using CEDS, and help us build submission tools to automate IDEA Part C reporting. We want CIID Part C states to say their state capacity is stronger because of CIID products and services.

Here are a few of our Part C goals:

• Support OSEP’s network of Part C TA providers by collaborating, connecting, and aligning work behind the scenes for efficient TA offerings (e.g., joint meetings; joint TA)
• Creating non-technical and technical training opportunities about data standards and data integration that will be relevant all Part C LAs, whether your state is a Health, Education, or other LA
• Expanding the CEDS data warehouse for Part C Section 618 data submissions
• Supporting state integration of Part C data across disparate systems; supporting data integration between Part C and B systems
• Increasing states’ capacity to use their data systems, create new data products, and use data in new ways to inform program decisions and governance activities

To us, this mission expansion represents an exciting opportunity to apply “if I could start CIID over” lessons learned, address persistent data management challenges specific to Part C, and use new technology to make your data work easier. We can’t wait to work with you!