What does Georgia’s CACDS stand for?
Georgia’s CACDS stands for Georgia’s Cross Agency Child Data System. This is Georgia’s early childhood information data system, or ECIDS as some states call it, and it provides longitudinal data on early childhood education enrollment.
When was Georgia’s CACDS created?
Georgia’s CACDS was built in 2012 as a data warehouse. In 2014, funds from the Early Learning Challenge grant gave Georgia’s CACDS the ability to expand and become a useful tool for eventual research and policy questions. As a data warehouse and not an operational system, Georgia’s CACDS is different in that it stores data over time for comparative analysis.
Who is Georgia’s CACDS for?
While data requests are limited to participating agencies at the moment, the standard reports are available for anyone to use and download. This website was designed in the hopes that it would be used by state agencies, policymakers, local leaders and all those interested in learning more about early childhood education access and participation across Georgia.
How can I get data?
The CACDS Governance Committee is currently developing a data and research request policy. At the moment, only the standard reports are freely available for public use.
When is the data updated?
Depending on the program, the data could be updated monthly, quarterly or annually.
How is the data linked?
After receiving each agency’s program data, CACDS runs an internal process to match the children based on name, date of birth, race/ethnicity, and address. All near matches are reviewed manually and reconciled.
Where can I find CACDS policies?
The Cross Agency Child Data System policies can be found here.