Insights from a Survey of Florida Early Learning Coalitions

Florida’s publicly funded early learning system serves more than 360,000 children each year through a statewide network of early learning providers and organizations.  

In partnership with TSG Advisors – Education, Helios Education Foundation worked with early learning leaders across Florida tounderstand how they access, interpret, and use data to support program administration, planning, resource allocation, and system improvement. 

Using a mixed-methods approach, including a review of public data and documents, interviews with early learning stakeholders, and a survey of Florida’s Early Learning Coalition executive directors and the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA), the research examined current data-use capacity and identified opportunities to help leaders make more effective, data-informed decisions.  

Key Findings Include: 

• Data capacity varies widely.
• Dedicated data staff make a difference.
• Data sharing remains a central barrier.
• Data are used more for compliance than improvement.

Explore actionable strategies for strengthening data-informed decision-making across Florida’s early learning system—from building leadership capacity and improving data access to advancing statewide collaboration and continuous improvement.