What the fifty-one files show together, under rules that forbid a ranking.
The rollup reads the released state files side by side: where the record is complete, which states publish a count and which do not, how the funding channels differ, and what the standing constructs show across the country. Every cross-state table carries comparability markers, shows distributions rather than orderings, and lists the file versions it was built from.
Comparability first
A measure is shown across states only when it has the same definition, the same reference year or cycle, and the same framework version in every constituent file, and every constituent's frame is of the same type. Where one of those differs, the difference is stated in words beside the measure with the states affected named, for example a stated reproducible sample beside exhaustive frames. Where a caveat cannot carry the difference, the measure is shown per state only.
Tables are sorted by file number by default, and a visible note on every sortable column says that sort order is not a ranking. There is no composite score, no grade, and no league table. Interpretation appears only in the rollup's analysis section, marked as interpretation, and never recommends anything. What a state does not publish or does not measure is reported as a finding in the Index's formulations and is not characterized.
NONE FOUND is a statement about publication, not about service delivery.
Obligations under IDEA are not evidence of a program.
What the rollup can and cannot yet say
Enrollment and institutional framework coverage is substantially complete across the released files. Fiscal allocation coverage is not: the earliest files were compiled before the fiscal dimension was specified, and a fiscal backfill across those files is a standing item on the program register. Until it closes, the Index supports national statements about enrollment and institutional structure and does not support national statements about money. That limitation is stated here rather than resolved by assertion, and the register shows when it closes.
Coverage map, constructs, and the reference-year mapping
Rendered from the released state packages: the coverage map, the standing constructs, the reference-year mapping, the constituent file versions, and the rollup's own DOI once deposited.
As of 13 September 2026
The national rollup renders here once the first cross-state tables pass the comparison protocol. Until then the register shows which jurisdictions are released and at which version.
One DOI for the baseline
At the completion of a baseline the fifty-one packages are deposited together as "National Deaf Education Data Index, Baseline [year], v1.0" with its own DOI, which is the citation for the national rollup. Each state release is deposited separately at its own version, so a reader can cite the country or a single state, and either citation resolves to the figures as released.
Read the baseline rules
What the label means, how a legacy file reaches it, and the calendar the cycle follows.
The baselineThe calendar →