My Personal Recap of the October SBOE Meeting

My Views Are My Own

By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.

10/7/2025

Our October State Board of Education meeting was held in Fremont this week and we spent some of our time touring the Fremont CTE Center.  If you are ever in Fremont, I would recommend scheduling a tour.  A resolution was adopted to designate October as Dyslexia Awareness Month.  Further work is being completed on the Social Studies Standards revision process as well as the strategic plan for the Nebraska Department of Education. 

Step Up to Quality

A contract for up to  $75,000/year for four years based on the number of hours and jobs completed was passed with a unanimous vote for a Step up to Quality. “Step up to Quality is Nebraska’s early childhood quality rating and improvement system for early childhood programs. It is available to school districts early childhood programs, Head Start, licensed child care and community preschools.”  I view this as checks and balances for our programs that already exist using the Environment Rating Scale (ERS) or the Classroom Assessment Scoring System™ (CLASS) observation tool.

Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) 

ECIDS is defined as "an early childhood integrated data system (ECIDS) that collects, integrates, maintains, stores, and reports information from early childhood programs across multiple agencies within a state that serve children and families from birth to age 8." In my research, I found that other states use the following rationale:

"When sharing data, decision makers should provide context about the communities being served and about systemic racism so that users can understand what the data do and do not say."

According to the Nebraska Department of Education, “The Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) was originally a joint partnership between NDE and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to develop the infrastructure to combine, secure, and report information from a variety of early learning services and programs. The ability to gather and combine multiple sources of early childhood data is essential to gaining a better understanding of how early childhood experiences affect students’ later educational performance and outcomes. Prior to development of ECIDS, no infrastructure existed to house this data. Development of the technical infrastructure was paid for by DHHS over multiple years from a combination of federal funding sources. The ECIDS infrastructure resides at NDE and is managed by NDE…Legislative Resolution 205 was introduced during the 2025-26 Legislative session with the goal of examining “barriers to and benefits of data sharing between the State Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services for purposes of the Early Childhood Integrated Data System.”

The interim study for LR205 will not take place until November or December. When dealing with data sharing amongst government agencies for 0-5 year olds, it’s important that we can say without a doubt that we have ALL necessary safeguards in place; therefore, it’s important to delay this vote until the interim study is completed and the reason I voted no. As mentioned last month, our Data Access and Use Policy and Procedures Including Research and Evaluations manual has not been updated since August 2013.  This document should be updated to reflect any and all safeguards that are brought up during the interim study with LR205. It was also brought up that federal laws such as FERPA may not reflect current technology. 

The ECIDS grant passed with a 6:1 vote.

Other Quick Points:

I will be attending the 2025 Nebraska MTSS Summit in Kearney on October 9th.  I hope to learn more about the goals and the data that supports this his work.

Nebraska’s Multi-tiered System of Support (NeMTSS) is a framework designed through the lens of continuous improvement to guide school districts, schools, and all educators to ensure each and every student has access to learning experiences that enhance their educational outcomes. This is accomplished through a whole child approach to ensure each student’s social, emotional, behavioral, academic, and environmental needs are met from prekindergarten through graduation. Continuous improvement is not the job of one or two people, working in isolation, but rather unfolds progressively and implementation is driven by district, school, and student-level teams that are dependent upon a common purpose and collaboration. The NeMTSS Framework outlines specific skills and actions to organize, support, deliver, and drive continuous improvement.