Assembly BillIntroducedWelfare and Institutions
AB 2092: Early Childhood Integrated Data System.
What AB 2092 does, verified June 8, 2026
The bill establishes a statewide early childhood integrated data system to link data across programs serving children from birth to 5 years of age. The system aims to improve coordination and efficiency in early learning and care services. A task force will be formed to coordinate efforts on developing and implementing the system, which will require annual progress reports to the legislature. The system will collect data on various aspects of early childhood care, and the department will establish conditions for the collection, deletion, use, and sharing of this data.
Bill journey
1IntroducedCurrent
2In CommitteePending
3First Chamber FloorPending
4Second ChamberPending
5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: Coauthors revised. (2026-05-14)Alert me
Author and sponsors
Full contact details, staff, and committees with Connect, $16/moUnlockRecent actions14 total · showing 5
| May. 14, 2026 | Coauthors revised. |
| May. 14, 2026 | In committee: Held under submission. |
| May. 14, 2026 | Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 5030.) |
| May. 13, 2026 | In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. |
| Apr. 27, 2026 | Re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
Latest bill textAmended version, April 23, 2026 · 2,072 words
| Amended IN Assembly April 23, 2026 |
| Amended IN Assembly March 26, 2026 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2092
| Introduced by Assembly Member Bonta |
February 18, 2026 |
An act to add Section 10209.9 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to early learning and care.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2092, as amended, Bonta. Early Childhood Integrated Data System.
Existing law places with the State Department of Social Services responsibility for various programs, services, and systems relating to early learning and care, including, among others, various childcare and development programs, the California Child Care Initiative Project, the Child Development Management Information System, and other related data systems, as specified.
This bill would establish the statewide Early Childhood Integrated Data System under the department to, among other things, link data across programs serving children from birth to 5 years of age. The bill would require the department to establish the Interagency Early Childhood Data Task Force to coordinate efforts on development and implementation of the system, as specified.
The bill would require the task force to annually submit a report to the Legislature on the progress in developing, establishing, and operating the data system. system, with the report containing certain recommendations. The bill would require the department to collect specified data. ingest data, sourced from administrative data systems maintained by each data provider, to be implemented in 2 phases, as specified. The bill would set forth certain conditions on the department relating to the collection, ingestion, deletion, use, and sharing of the data.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California’s early childhood data systems are fragmented across multiple agencies, limiting the state’s ability to identify gaps in access, evaluate and improve program quality, strategically direct investments, and ensure equitable outcomes for children and families.
(b) According to Child Trends, a leading research organization, integrated early childhood data enable states to use data to increase equitable access to programs, monitor outcomes, and inform policy decisions that close disparities in school readiness and long-term achievement.
(c) Establishing a comprehensive early childhood integrated data system will allow California to do all of the following:
(1) Link data across programs serving children from birth to five years of age.
(2) Provide actionable insights to improve access, quality, and equity.
(3) Support longitudinal analysis by connecting early childhood data to the California Cradle-to-Career Data System. across state entities. The data may be used in the future to support the California Cradle-to-Career Data System through subsequent legislation.
(d) The new data system will prioritize equity and inclusion by ensuring that data collection and reporting illuminate disparities and inform targeted interventions.
(e) A state-led governance structure, supported by dedicated funding and interagency collaboration, is essential to implement the new data system and protect the privacy and rights of children and families.
(f) By investing in the new data system, California will strengthen its early learning system, improve outcomes for children, and advance the state’s commitment to equity and transparency.
SEC. 2.
Section 10209.9 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:10209.9.
(a) The statewide Early Childhood Integrated Data System is hereby established under the State Department of Social Services, and the department shall assume statewide leadership and coordination of the data system. The system shall do all of the following:(1) Link data across programs serving children from birth to five years of age.
(2) Provide actionable insights to improve access, quality, and equity.
(3)Support longitudinal analysis by connecting early childhood data to the California Cradle-to-Career Data System.
(3) Provide necessary linked data to conduct audits and evaluations of federal- or state-supported early childhood programs, to enforce or comply with legal requirements that relate to those programs, and to allow for the creation of deidentified datasets for accountability, transparency, improvement of programs, and other public purposes, subject to all applicable privacy laws, including, but not limited to, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1320d et seq.), the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g), the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (Part 2.6 (commencing with Section 56) of Division 1 of the Civil Code), and the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code).
(b) (1) The department shall establish the Interagency Early Childhood Data Task Force to coordinate efforts on development and implementation of the system.
(2) The task force shall be composed of a data privacy expert and a representative from all of the following entities:
(A) The California Health and Human Services Agency.
(B) The State Department of Social Services.
(C) The State Department of Education.
(D) The State Department of Developmental Services.
(E) The State Department of Public Health.
(F) The Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
(G) The State Board of Education.
(H) The Office of Cradle-to-Career Data.
(I) First 5 California.
(3) The task force shall provide information and advise the department on early learning and care data by doing all of the following:
(A) Conduct a comprehensive landscape analysis scan, for which the task force may leverage any applicable published early-learning landscape analysis, that outlines all of the following:
(i) Existing zero to five years of age data elements across data providers and state entities.
(ii) Existing early childhood workforce data elements across data providers and state entities.
(iii) Existing early childhood program and site data elements across data providers and state entities.
(iv) Data-collection gaps Existing data-collection gaps across data providers and state entities to answer how children are moving through the education pipeline and how best to understand both regional and statewide needs.
(v) Current data-sharing agreements amongst the state entities represented in the task force.
(vi) Functionality of the data system.
(vii) The need for state funding and full-time equivalent state-funded staff needed to implement the data system.
(B) Guide decisions regarding strategic planning, data-collection data-ingestion procedures, including pertinent data elements to be collected, ingested by the data system, security policies, and metrics to track progress toward state goals.
(C) Facilitate the sharing of existing data from early childhood programs across state agencies to do both entities to do all of the following:
(i) Inform policy related to early childhood programs at the state level.
(ii) Guide improvements to early childhood programs to provide better outcomes for children and families.
(iii) Enable ongoing evaluation in support of accountability and transparency around California’s early childhood programs.
(D) Develop and implement a stakeholder engagement plan. an interest-holder engagement plan that outlines a process to consider and respond to public input.
(E) Develop the data system in a manner that allows the state to do all of the following:
(i) Identify gaps in services.
(ii) Identify opportunities to align services and programs.
(iii) Coordinate needs across services and programs.
(iv) Design and monitor equitable reimbursement structures that reflect the true cost of care and promote quality improvement.
(v) Further implement the Master Plan on Early Learning and Care.
(vi) Comply with all applicable privacy laws.
(4) (A) The department and task force members shall establish data-sharing agreements that capture shared intent to collaborate and develop the data system. system and that capture data-sharing purposes, specifications, and methodologies that meet all applicable state and federal privacy laws.
(B) The task force members shall share their respective early childhood data described in this section with the department. department, subject to compliance with all applicable privacy laws.
(C) Only reviewed and approved uses of the data by the state entity from which the data originated shall be allowed.
(C)
(D)
The task force members shall meet at least quarterly until the data system is implemented. The task force members shall continue to share data pursuant to this section even after the data system is(5) (A) The task force shall annually submit a report to the Legislature on the progress in developing, establishing, and operating the data system. The report shall include both of the following:
(i) Specific recommendations for the ongoing engagement of community interest holders.
(ii) Recommendations regarding the permanent governance structure of the data system. These recommendations shall address the sustained oversight, data privacy protections, and the technical evolution of the system after its initial establishment to ensure the system’s long-term viability and utility.
(B) A report to be submitted pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(c)(1)The department shall collect data, which shall include data on children’s state and federal programs, such as the type of education program, health, food, teacher credentialing, income, address, age, learning milestones, hours in care, language use and access, and any other data elements determined to be pertinent by the task force pursuant to subdivision (b).
(c) (1) The department shall ingest data, sourced from administrative data systems maintained by each data provider, which shall be limited to the following, as specified in each data-sharing agreement:
(A) Credentialing Automation System for Education.
(B) California Statewide Assignment Accountability System.
(C) Accreditation Data System.
(D) California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System.
(E) Migrant Student Information Network.
(F) After School Support and Information System.
(G) California Preschool Data Collection System.
(H) Child Development Management Information System.
(I) Preschool Language Information System.
(2) (A) This section shall not be construed as requiring state entities to collect new data. Instead, the state entities are urged to furnish the department with existing data to answer specific questions needed to produce a more comprehensive understanding of early learning and care experiences, workforce, and needs in California.
(B) Data ingestion under this section shall be implemented pursuant to the following two phases:
(i) Phase 1: personally identifiable information shall only be used in the initial stage of data sharing in order to link records across currently separate datasets needed to answer specific research questions, not to follow individuals. As with other similar current cross-agency data-sharing procedures, this linkage process shall occur in a highly secure environment, and the separation principle shall apply, under which an individual’s personally identifiable information shall be kept separate from information about the services that they received or other analytically relevant information. The Legislature finds that this is standard practice in the case of many existing cross-agency data-sharing projects, such as the California Health and Human Services Agency Record Reconciliation Data and Dashboard and the System of Care Foster Youth Cross-System Landscape Analysis that is generated pursuant to Section 16521.6.
(ii) Phase 2: once the probabilistic match is complete, the records shall be stripped of identifying information, leaving only an encrypted linkage key and source record identifiers facilitating integration with analytic information. This confidential research file shall then be pushed to a separate analytic environment, where it shall be made available to entities on the task force for analysis and aggregation.
(C) Similarly to other state data systems, all data made available for analysis in the Early Childhood Integrated Data System shall be deidentified and presented as summary data or in the aggregate, such as rates, percentages, averages, or other statistics that provide information about a collection, services, or group of individuals. The personally identifiable information shall not be analyzed or used for any purpose other than the linking described in subparagraph (B).
(2)
(3)
(A) The department shall retain(B) The department shall only collect ingest the data necessary to accomplish the purpose. The department shall not collect ingest data that significantly differ from the data specified and authorized in this section without prior authorization from the Legislature.
(C) The department shall not use the data for any purpose other than the purpose for which they were collected. ingested. The department shall not sell the data. The department shall not share the data beyond the purpose for which they were collected. ingested.
(3)
(4)
The department shall enforce data privacy and protection policies with all participating entities.Text of AB 2092 as amended, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions