ADE Summit 2026

Alison Williams, Business Coalition Director, Excel by 8, and Jennifer Douglas, Early Childhood Program Administrator, DESE, OEC, will hold an interactive discussion about early childhood education as a critical driver of both current workforce stability and future economic growth. Participants will explore how cross-sector partnerships move beyond traditional philanthropy to impact systemic issues of workforce and economic development.

Closing the Gap Before It Begins 2.0: The Power of Pre‑K Outcomes” This session explores how the Early Development Instrument (EDI) serves as a powerful population-level tool to identify and address developmental inequities before children enter the classroom. Participants will learn how to analyze EDI data across five key domains to pinpoint community vulnerabilities, strategically allocate resources, and foster cross-sector collaborations. By moving from individual assessment to community-wide snapshots, we will demonstrate how to create targeted interventions that ensure every child, regardless of zip code, starts school ready to succeed.

How clarity, coherence, and trust drive sustainable enrollment over time. Enrollment health reflects trust, clarity, and coherence. This session reframes student recruitment, retention, and enrollment management as a leadership and governance responsibility, not a marketing task. Participants will explore how families make enrollment decisions, why schools lose students over time, and how mission clarity, program quality, staff alignment, and family experience drive demand. The session emphasizes enrollment as an early indicator of organizational health and long-term sustainability.

This session will cover data fields within the FinancePLUS software that are reported in the state reporting cycles and will troubleshoot cycle errors and corrections. This session is for any users who enter data into the eFinance software, especially for the SIS Coordinator for cycles 1,8,9.