Education Commission of the States defined a Statewide Longitudinal Data System as one with formal connections across two or more of the four core agencies (Early Learning, K-12, Postsecondary, Workforce). If a state data system only contains one type of data (e.g. only K-12 data), the state was not designated as having established an SLDS. States were required to include at least two of these core agencies in their data systems to be designated as having established an SLDS. As such, the data systems that meet our definition might not always be those systems associated with the Federal SLDS grant program.

If a state’s SLDS is still in development, the state was not designated as having established an SLDS. However, we have made our best efforts to identify such states and designate them as being in the process of establishing an SLDS.

Please contact Zeke Perez Jr. zperez@ecs.org with questions on this issue.