Children Under 13 Clinical Trial
Official title:
2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education
The primary purpose of the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) is to
provide a comprehensive picture of both the availability and utilization of early care and
education (ECE) in the United States. This study builds on the work of the 2012 NSECE which
was the first nationally-representative survey of ECE providers, workers, and households with
young children in more than 20 years. Multiple policy and programmatic changes affecting the
supply and quality of ECE have been implemented since the last fielding of the NSECE, making
this an ideal time to re-map the ECE landscape. The main objectives of the 2019 study
include:
- Updating the national portrait of the availability of early care and education for the
full spectrum of care providers, including householders and providers from all 50 states
and the District of Columbia.
- Identifying early care and education needs and preferences among households in the
United States with children under age 13 as they pertain to supporting both the
employment of parents and the development of children.
- Capturing data on all forms of non-parental care for all children in a household.
- Providing the perspectives of both families and providers on the services offered in a
system where children are often in multiple arrangements and providers receive funding
from multiple sources.
- Linking the data set collected with policy-relevant data.
- Increasing the understanding of the care received by low-income children and how that
varies across communities.
The 2019 NSECE consists of a set of four integrated, nationally representative surveys being
conducted between January and June 2019. There are surveys of 1) households with children
under 13, 2) home-based providers 3) center-based providers, and 4) the center-based provider
workforce. Together they characterize the use and availability of early care and education in
America and permit better understanding of how well families' needs and preferences
coordinate with providers' offerings and constraints. The 2019 NSECE is collecting
information in a manner that facilitates comparisons with data collected for the 2012 NSECE
and that allows for examination of the changes in the characteristics of households and their
use of non-parental care and the changing landscape of ECE programs during that seven-year
period.
In order to create a comprehensive portrait of the availability and use of early care and
education, the NSECE is fielding a set of four integrated, nationally representative surveys
in 2019. These are surveys of 1) households with children under 13, 2) home-based providers
3) center-based providers, and 4) the center-based provider workforce. Together they
characterize the supply of and demand for early care and education in America and permit
better understanding of how well families' needs and preferences coordinate with providers'
offerings and constraints.
The Household Survey is being conducted with a parent or guardian of a child or children
under age 13 in households with at least one member child under age 13. Eligible respondents
are identified through the Household Screener based only on the presence of an age-eligible
child. Screening is being completed by mail, by phone, by web, and in person. All of these
interviews are being conducted by an interviewer, primarily in person.
This survey documents the nation's demand for early care and education services. Key
questionnaire topics include details on usage of non-parental care, expenditures on
non-parental care, parental search behavior for early care and education, and the balance of
parental employment with child care needs and availability. These data will help to answer
such research questions as 1) Who is caring for America's children when they are not with
their parents and do families with different demographic characteristics have different
preferences or different patterns of usage? 2) How do families search for care and how does
this vary by age of children, characteristics of parents, location, and availability of
licensed slots per population? 3) How and how much do families pay for care? and 4) How many
families of different characteristics receive public financial support for ECE, and how does
this vary by age of child and type of care utilized?
The Home-based Provider Survey is being conducted with individuals who provide care in a
home-based setting for children under age 13 who are not their own for five or more hours a
week. Two sample sources contribute providers. One, home-based providers who appear in
provider sampling frames constructed from state and national lists were sampled for this
survey. These providers are designated as 'listed.' Listed providers are primarily licensed
or regulated family day care providers, but also include other formally listed home-based
providers such as license-exempt providers or providers participating in Early Head Start.
Alternatively, households may be identified as eligible based on their responses to the
household screener (specifically, that an adult in the household regularly cares for children
not his or her own at least five hours per week in a home-based setting). These providers do
not appear in the provider sampling frame and are designated as 'unlisted.' Data collection
is being conducted by web, in person, and by telephone with field interviewers.
Key questionnaire topics in the home-based provider questionnaire include enrollment and the
characteristics of the children served, rates charged for care, and participation in
government programs, household composition, qualifications for and attitudes toward early
childhood education, use of curricula and activities conducted with children (varied to be
appropriate for younger children and school-age children). Portions of the home-based
provider questionnaire will contribute to analyses of the ECE workforce and mirror the
content of the workforce questionnaire administered to classroom-assigned instructional staff
at center-based providers. Other portions of this questionnaire closely mimic the
center-based provider questionnaire (see below), so that enrollment, program participation,
provider charges for care, attitudes, orientation and activities data can be accurately
compared across all different categories of provider.
These data will answer such questions as 1) What kind of early care and education is
available across communities throughout the country? 2) How well does the available supply of
early care and education support parents' employment? 3) How do different types of providers
vary in their characteristics of care and affordability? and 4) Who are the individuals
working in early care and education? What are their experiences in terms of employment
characteristics, classroom activities, and professional development? What are their
attitudes, orientations, and stress and depression levels?
The inclusion of providers identified through the Household Screener will offer invaluable
nationally representative data on family, friend and neighbor providers and is one of the
pioneering aspects of the NSECE. Investigators will learn about both paid and unpaid care,
including how they differ in their characteristics and their availability to families.
The Center-based Provider Survey will be conducted with directors or administrative staff of
ECE programs that provide care to children not yet in kindergarten who were identified from
the provider sampling frame built from state or national administrative lists such as state
licensing lists, Head Start program records, or pre-K rolls. These providers include
regulated, licensed, and other private providers as well. The center-based provider
questionnaire is preceded by a Center-based Provider Screener that confirms and updates
information from the provider sampling frame and determines eligibility for the center-based
provider questionnaire. Topics covered by this instrument include enrollment and
characteristics of children served, staffing, prices charged, schedules of service,
participation in government programs, and staff compensation and professional development
policies. The questionnaire also includes the selection of a representative classroom about
which more detailed staffing, compensation, and curriculum information are collected. These
data constitute a nationally representative sample of ECE classrooms. This instrument will be
administered using web, in-person, and telephone interviewing.
The center-based provider questionnaire data will answer such questions as 1) What kind of
early care and education is available across communities throughout the country? 2) How well
does the available supply of early care and education support parents' employment? 3) How do
different types of providers vary in their characteristics of care and affordability? and 4)
How many and what types of providers participate in quality improvement efforts such as staff
quality ratings and professional development?
The Workforce Survey sample is comprised of one or two classroom-assigned instructional staff
members from each center-based provider who completed a center-based provider interview.
Workforce respondents are drawn from the center-based provider questionnaire data, in which
all staff members have been enumerated from a randomly selected classroom. The questionnaire
closely mirrors portions of the home-based provider questionnaire, so that the two data
sources together can paint a rich portrait of the paid ECE workforce, including center-based
and home-based paid providers. (Individuals who are not paid will be profiled as described in
the family, friends, and neighbor section above.) Topics include information about the work
setting (activities in the classroom, interactions with parents and other staff, availability
of professional development and other supports), roles and responsibilities (lead teacher,
teacher, assistant teacher, aide), compensation (wages and benefits), and perceived
leadership and morale, as well as personal information about qualifications, attitudes toward
ECE, and stress, depression, and demographic information.
The workforce questionnaire is the simplest of the NSECE survey instruments, but these data
represent a signal contribution of the study. Before the 2012 study, no nationally
representative survey of paid ECE workers had ever been done, yet many of the pressing ECE
policy questions require better understanding of home-based care providers' qualifications,
access to professional development, motivation for working in the field, and nature of
participation in the labor market as well as the extent to which paid home-based providers
are more generally available for expanding and improving overall ECE supply. Some of the
workforce questionnaire data will allow tabulation by provider program characteristics (such
as enrollment size, type of care, geographic location, for-profit/not-for-profit status, and
participation in government programs) of factors that have been found in the literature to
predict observed quality. These factors include staff qualifications and compensation, use of
curricula, availability of professional development, and children's activities while in care.
The data will answer such questions as who are the individuals working in early care and
education and what are their experiences in terms of employment characteristics, classroom
activities, and professional development?
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| Status | Clinical Trial | Phase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recruiting |
NCT05987137 -
2024 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)
|