To the Administrator Addressed (TAA) Correspondence

2026–27 Required Reporting for Public Prekindergarten and Kindergarten Programs

The Early Childhood Data System (ECDS), a component of the Texas Student Data System (TSDS), supports statewide reporting of early childhood education data.    

All school districts and open-enrollment charter schools (school systems) are required to submit program information and student assessment data collected using commissioner-approved instruments for prekindergarten and kindergarten, in accordance with state law and the Texas Education Data Standards (TEDS).

Additional information about approved instruments is available on the TEA Data Tool Selection Guidance webpage.

ECDS Submission Windows   

Program Submission Window Deadline
Public Kindergarten November 9, 2026 – January 28, 2027 January 28, 2027
Public Prekindergarten May 3, 2027 – June 24, 2027 June 24, 2027

 School systems are strongly encouraged to begin the submission process early to allow time to resolve data issues before the deadline.

Data elements to be reported in the 2026–27 school year vary by type of program. Requirements for kindergarten and prekindergarten programs are outlined below.

Public Kindergarten Programs (Due January 28, 2027)

All school systems that operate a kindergarten program must submit ECDS data through TSDS.

School systems must administer and report data from one of the commissioner-approved kindergarten reading readiness instruments:

  • Circle Kindergarten Progress Monitoring (formerly TX-KEA) by CLI Engage
  • mCLASS Texas Edition by Amplify

Additional guidance is available on the TEA Early Childhood Data Collection Requirements webpage and in the July 30, 2026 correspondence.

Required Data Submission

School systems must submit:

  • Student demographic information
  • Special program information
  • Course section information for students enrolled in kindergarten
  • Assessment data for readiness determination from an approved kindergarten instrument

Assessment vendors will submit beginning-of-year (BOY) assessment results directly to TEA. School systems should work directly with their selected vendor regarding data submission schedules and processes.

Readiness determinations are outlined in the 2026-2027 ECDS Assessment Specifications.

Preparing for Submission

Kindergarten ECDS data will be available for users to complete in TSDS beginning November 9, 2026.

Before certifying their ECDS submission, school systems must:

  • Review and validate student, staff, course section, and assessment data
  • Verify data counts and reports
  • Resolve all fatal business validation errors

Timely validation and correction of data will help ensure successful submission by the January 28, 2027 deadline.

Public Prekindergarten Programs (Due June 24, 2027)

The reporting of public prekindergarten program data into ECDS is mandatory for school systems that administer a prekindergarten program to 3-year-old and/or 4-year-old students. The collection includes the following data:

  1. Demographic information
  2. Special program information
  3. Sources of funding for prekindergarten classes
  4. Course section data needed to determine:
    1. students enrolled in school system prekindergarten classes, including the number of children who are eligible for free prekindergarten under TEC, §29.153
    2. the number of half-day and full-day prekindergarten classes offered by the school system and campus (calculated by TEA)
    3. class size (instructional staff-to-student ratio will be calculated by TEA)
  5. The PK school type (PKSchoolType Descriptor Table)
  6. The childcare operation number of the childcare facilities with which a school system has a prekindergarten partnership (defined as students enrolled in both the childcare and the school system)
    1. For PKSchoolType Descriptors 11 In-District Charter Partnership and 12- Public Prekindergarten Head Start (Non-school system grantee), the school system will be required to submit a Child Care Operation Number for the partnering entity. If the partner is a licensed child care provider through Child Care Regulation (CCR), the school system will enter the child care operation number assigned by CCR. If the partnering provider is NOT licensed, eight zeros, “00000000”, must be entered.

In addition to the data elements above, the following data related to high-quality prekindergarten is also required to be submitted into ECDS for those public prekindergarten programs serving eligible 4-year-old students (19 TAC §102.1003(i)):

  1. BOY and EOY student progress monitoring data for all eligible four-year-old students (see 19 TAC §102.1003(c) and (i)(2))
  2. PK Teacher Requirements (see 19 TAC §102.1003(d) and (e)):
  3. URL (link) to the prekindergarten family engagement plan (indicates the internet website address that connects directly to the school system’s high-quality prekindergarten family engagement plan document)
  4. Program evaluation type
  5. High-quality prekindergarten program indicator (student level)
  6. Curriculum used in the program: The requirement for curriculum to align with the current Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines still applies to the curriculum reported as “Other.” School systems should keep documentation on file to confirm alignment with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines when reporting Descriptor 99.

Additional Information regarding Progress Monitoring for three-year-olds 

If a student is served in a stand-alone PK3 classroom, specific progress monitoring is not required.

If a three-year-old student is served in a mixed-age classroom (PK3 and PK4), progress monitoring is required for the classroom because it includes four-year-old students participating in a high-quality prekindergarten program. In these situations, the teacher should implement progress monitoring that is developmentally appropriate and may modify or exclude progress monitoring for three-year-old students if the selected tool is not developmentally appropriate for that age group.

School systems may submit student progress monitoring data in ECDS for three-year-old prekindergarten students if they administer a tool from the Commissioner's List; however, submission of this data is not required.

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.29.htm

Additional Support

School systems can receive training and support from their regional education service centers (ESCs) or assessment vendors. The ESC ECDS data champions, trained in TSDS and data loading, can provide technical assistance throughout the process. For a list of ESC ECDS data champions for ESCs 1 through 10, visit the ESC TSDS Champions 1-10 webpage. For a list of ESC ECDS data champions for ESCs 11 through 20, visit the ESC TSDS Champions 11-20 webpage.

TEA will hold information sessions on the following dates to better support ECDS submission needs:

ECDS General Submission Guidance with Breakout Sessions for Questions and Answers: 

Kindergarten ECDS Submission Guidance with Instrument Vendor Breakout Sessions: 

Prekindergarten ECDS Submission Guidance with Instrument Vendor Breakout Sessions:

Technical Assistance

Questions regarding high-quality prekindergarten components, kindergarten programs, or assessments should be sent through the Early Childhood Education Support Portal.

Technical questions regarding ECDS submission should be submitted via the TSDS Incident Management System (TIMS) using a TEAL login.