Sponsoring Agencies

The ECLS-K benefited from the collaboration of many federal agencies. The ECLS-K represents the efforts of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and several education, health, and human services agencies. These federal agencies collaborated with NCES on the design and implementation of the study, and many of them contributed funding as well. Their participation helped to avoid duplication in data collection efforts across federal agencies and resulted in a broad and comprehensive study of children’s development and experiences from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Federal agencies collaborating with NCES on the ECLS-K included:

• Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
• Economic Research Service (ERS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education
• Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), U.S. Department of Education
• Policy and Programs Studies Services, U.S. Department of Education
• National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), IES, U.S. Department of Education

The Role of the Collaborating Agencies

Several agencies contributed to the development of instrument content, decisions about sampling operations, and decisions about the frequency of data collection. OSEP and NCSER sponsored the special education questionnaires and the collection of more extensive data on children with disabilities and their educational programs. The ERS of the USDA supported various components including the measurement of children's height and weight, family experiences with food insufficiency, availability of federally sponsored food in the school, and nutrition. ACYF funded the verification of children's Head Start participation.