The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) works alongside state education leaders to ensure every student graduates prepared for college, careers and life. As part of this commitment, CCSSO identifies opportunities to develop strategic partnerships that help states strengthen the supports and pathways that enable all students to succeed.
In June of 2024, CCSSO, the U.S. Department of War (DoW) and a group of state leaders launched the Military Enlistment Data Access to Lift Student Success (MEDALS) collaboration to create processes that evaluate student readiness related to a successful transition into the military. This effort would also help states identify areas of improvement to ensure students are aware of the military as a career pathway and that students are successful if they choose it. The working group is composed of military leaders, state education staff and other state and federal data experts.
The working group created project teams to focus on technical solution design and the development of a standardized data-sharing agreement. As part of this effort, five state education agencies are piloting a prototype agreement to support initial testing of the agreement structure and the end-to-end data-sharing process. The Arkansas Department of Education, Kansas State Department of Education, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Tennessee Department of Education and Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction have each executed agreements with the Department of War using common language and will begin sharing military enlistment indicators directly between their agencies and DoW. This pilot represents an initial step toward a scalable, standardized approach, with broader state participation anticipated in the 2026–2027 school year.
For more information about MEDALS, contact Glenn Meyer, Senior Project Manager at glenn.meyer@ccsso.org or Keith Farrugia, Senior Project Manager at keith.farrugia@ccsso.org.
