Sponsors (3)
Introduced December 4, 2025 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress December 4, 2025
The bill seeks to improve education outcomes by funding a federal research center and modernizing linked education–workforce data systems to strengthen evidence and public access, but it increases privacy and reidentification risks, ongoing state and federal costs, potential duplication of research efforts, and may constrain research diversity and State flexibility.
Students, teachers, and schools will gain access to a federal center that consolidates research on how students learn, providing evidence-based guidance to improve instruction and curriculum design.
Researchers, policymakers, and state education agencies will get better coordinated research capacity and linked education–workforce data, improving the evidence base for policy, program evaluation, and postsecondary/workforce outcomes.
State education agencies and schools will receive funding to modernize interoperable data systems that link early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and workforce outcomes, reducing reporting burdens and improving data reuse.
Students and families will face increased privacy and reidentification risks as detailed, individual-level education and workforce records are linked across systems.
State and local governments (and ultimately taxpayers) will face ongoing operational costs to build and sustain statewide longitudinal data systems that may exceed one-time grant funding, and the large federal funding role may be viewed as increased federal cost or oversight.
Small or disaggregated subgroups (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, immigrants) could be stigmatized or harmed if publicly released subgroup data are insufficiently de-identified or contextualized.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a multi-year competitive grant program to help states design, build, and maintain statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) that link early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, workforce, and other education-related data while protecting privacy. Also amends the Institute of Education Sciences' statute to add a new center and a statutory definition of the “science of learning and development.” The grant program is authorized at $500 million for FY2026 and at least that amount each subsequent year, includes planning grants, reporting and guidance requirements, and detailed application criteria focused on technical quality, data linkages, public tools, researcher access, privacy protections, and sustainability.