2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education

Summary

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.

Conditions

• Children Under 13

Interventions

OTHER

No Intervention

No intervention is being administered.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation

  collaborator FED

• Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

  collaborator OTHER

• Child Trends

  collaborator OTHER

• National Opinion Research Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Rupa Datta, PhD · NORC at the University of Chicago

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-11-13

Primary Completion

2019-07-27

Completion

2019-07-27

Countries

• United States

Study Locations