Helping transform early childhood services
Summary
The Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC) undertook a major effort to modernize how technology supports young children, families, and early-childhood providers across Connecticut. We partnered with OEC to strengthen its digital foundations while improving access to services relied on by more than 200,000 children and families statewide.
The challenge
OEC is a $400M+ state agency responsible for a complex network of early-childhood programs, including child development services, family supports, and provider oversight. Central to this mission is supporting the educators, providers, and professionals who care for young children. Delivering on that mission requires technology that meets the needs of families, providers, and staff.
Prior to our engagement, many of OEC’s technology systems and digital practices weren’t keeping pace with user needs. Families and providers needed clearer, easier digital pathways to find resources and share information, but legacy tools and processes made those interactions harder than they should’ve been.
To address these gaps — and in alignment with the Preschool Development Grant program administered by the Administration for Children and Families — OEC sought a partner who could help modernize priority services while strengthening the internal capability needed to sustain the work.
The solution
We partnered with OEC to provide support that combined immediate service modernization with long-term capability building inside the organization. The work focused on three core areas:
1. Modernizing public-facing services
- Redesigned and modernized OEC’s web presence to make it easier for families, childcare providers, and partners to access essential early-childhood resources
- Improved how families located high-quality childcare and related services
- Established a statewide web analytics capability by standing up a web traffic analytics system that gave leadership better visibility into how users interacted with government digital properties
2. Strengthening data and insight
- Built a streamlined data collection tool for early care and education providers to submit accurate information about the children in their care
- Piloted rapid, low-risk solutions to better understand barriers to accessing affordable childcare
- Leveraged data and information to improve support for families with young children experiencing homelessness
3. Building internal digital capacity and resilient operations
- Supported the structuring, recruiting, and onboarding of internal digital service experts
- Authored a Digital Talent Management Handbook to guide recruiting, hiring, and retaining in-house digital professionals
- Developed practical toolkits to support modern ways of working, including an Agile Procurement Playbook and Data Sharing Playbook, as well as Content Guidelines
- Trained nearly 20 procurement officials in modern acquisition practices through the Digital IT Acquisition Professional Training — Executive Edition
- Supported OEC’s transition to a virtual operating model during COVID-19 by setting up digital collaboration tools and training staff on remote-work best practices
Taken together, this work improved the experience for families and providers while building the internal capability needed to sustain modernization over time.
The results
- Launched several modernized digital services, including OEC’s new online presence
- Improved OEC’s ability to use data to inform policy, service design, and investment decisions
- Established repeatable practices for hiring, training, and supporting internal digital talent
- Accelerated the adoption of modern acquisition practices across the organization
- Enabled more than 200 professionals to work effectively in a fully virtual environment