First established in 2009 by the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS) is a hub for secure access to data on Illinoisians’ early childhood, education, and workforce experiences, and a catalyst for informed decisions shaping the future of Illinois. Using technology to connect data across state agencies, the ILDS ensures that accurate and timely disaggregated data can be safely shared for research and analytics, as well as in public-facing dashboards. The ILDS is also a governance system, aiming to streamline processes and reduce the burden of accessing high-quality, well-managed, and integrated data while fostering research collaboration within a protected space.
The ILDS helps to bring together data from across the education and workforce spectrum, including early childhood programs such as home visiting and the child care assistance program, to and through K-12 and higher education, and into the workforce, including job training programs and wage records gathered to support unemployment insurance. Using these combined data sets allows Illinois to better understand the programs and supports that help our citizens succeed. Ultimately, the ILDS can empower students, families, communities, practitioners, advocates, policymakers, and state agencies to make data-informed decisions.
ILDS Mission
To ensure that high-quality, appropriate, and timely data about learners and best practices from birth to career will be readily available, easy to use, and secure.
ILDS Vision
Illinois educational and workforce practice and policy decisions are driven by a culture of data use and actionable information that supports strong, equitable outcomes and engages stakeholders.
ILDS 2.0 Initiative
In 2020, the Governor’s office and eight state agencies launched the ILDS 2.0 initiative. This initiative is designed to re-invent the technical approach to accessing data and streamline the processes for sharing data. Working with the Department of Innovation and Technology and other technical partners, the agencies have worked to re-engineer the approach to data management and analytics.
Accomplishments of this effort include:
- A centralized technology platform that allows agencies to control access to their data using standardized processes;
- The development of a “standing dataset” – these are datasets ready to be used for analysis. The first dataset developed is a dataset that integrates participation data across early education programming in the state (including Head Start, which is a federal program run locally);
- The establishment of a data request process so that internal and external entities can request data from the ILDS;
- The oversight and management of a variety of legal documents, including data agreements between agencies and their data partners, the creation of a Data Access and Use template, and the development of a variety of vendor agreements; and
- Coordinating various project development and governance activities, including managing vendors to share data with the state, partnering with the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map and a design firm to support an inclusive design process for a refreshed IECAM, and leading the ILDS governance process.
Our Role
Edsystems staffs the ILDS and leads the ILDS 2.0 initiative. Activities associated with these efforts include:
- Supporting the governance committees that determine how and when data can be used.
- Aligning agency data and research priorities.
- Working with agencies to get access to data.
- Supporting processes for requesting data and giving access to data.
- Designing the policy and procedures for combining data and ensuring it is safe and secure.
Project Resources
- ILDS Overview
- June 2023 Progress Update
- January 2024 Progress Update
- August 2024 Progress Update
- Coming Soon: A data request inquiry form to inquire about the ILDS and notify the ILDS team of your interest in data requests.
Blog Posts
Introducing the Early Childhood Data Hub
An introduction to the new Early Childhood Data Hub from Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM), powered by the Illinois Longitudinal Data System.
Why Do We Need a Longitudinal Data System?
Why does the State of Illinois need a longitudinal data system? Or to put it more precisely, how does longitudinal data help answer key policy questions? We address these questions in this third post of our Making the Case for the ILDS blog series.
What Is in the ILDS? What Questions Can It Answer?
Understanding the potential of Illinois’ Longitudinal Data System (ILDS) to answer complex policy questions can help improve Illinois’ early childhood, education, and workforce systems and outcomes. This is the second post of our Making the Case for the ILDS blog series.
