2024 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)

NCT05987137 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: HHSP233201500048I-75N98021F003
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 106,200
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) captures families' needs, preferences, and choices of non-parental care for children under age 13 and providers' child care and early education offerings. Since the NSECE was last conducted in 2019, the landscape of ECE has changed dramatically. Funding for early childhood programming has grown as policymakers recognize the important role access to ECE plays for families as a work support for parents and an investment in children's future educational and economic opportunities. At the same time, beginning in 2020, the nation experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to significant shifts in the U.S. economy. These circumstances likely altered parents' use of ECE and the labor market and economic forces in which ECE providers operate. The 2024 NSECE builds on findings from the 2012 and 2019 NSECE to allow for comparisons of supply and demand of child care and early education over the 12 years that span data collection. The 2024 NSECE aims to inform future policy discussions about child care and early education at the local, state, and national levels by providing data to:

• Build on the efforts and lessons from the 2012 and 2019 NSECE to allow for comparisons of child care and early education supply and the early care and education workforce from 2012 to 2024
• Capture the characteristics of households with children under age 13, such as parental employment status and schedules, preferences and choices of non-parental care, and other factors that affect their need for and access to child care and early education
• Document how the field of child care and early education responded to policy initiatives during the period between 2012 and 2024, including changes in supply and demand during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020

Conditions

Children Under 13

Keywords

Early care and education; Center-based providers; Home-based providers; Caregivers; Child care; Workforce; ECE

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Need For And Use Of Childcare in Households With Children Under 13

  The household questionnaire collects information on each household's need for and use of early care and education services, including 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.

  October 2023 - July 2024

• Provision And Characteristics Of Child Care Among Center-based Providers

  The center-based provider questionnaire collects information on 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. Individual questionnaire items may be developed into scales by researchers, but specific scales are not prescribed in the study design or analysis plans.

  October 2023 - July 2024

• Characteristics And Experiences Of The ECE Workforce

  The workforce (classroom staff) questionnaire collects 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, practices regarding ECE, and burnout, depression, and demographic information. Individual questionnaire items may be developed into scales by researchers, and some standard scales are excerpted in the NSECE questionnaire, but specific scales are not prescribed in the study design or analysis plans.

  October 2023 - July 2024

• Provision and characteristics of child care among home-based providers

  The workforce (classroom staff) questionnaire collects 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, practices regarding ECE, and burnout, depression, and demographic information. Individual questionnaire items may be developed into scales by researchers, and some standard scales are excerpted in the NSECE questionnaire, but specific scales are not prescribed in the study design or analysis plans.

  October 2023 - July 2024

Study Arms (4)

Households

Interviews conducted with the parent or guardian of a child or children under age 13.

Other: No intervention is being administered.

Home-based providers

Interviews conducted with individuals who provide care in a home-based setting to children under age 13 who are not their own for five or more hours a week.

Other: No intervention is being administered.

Center-based Providers

Interviews conducted with directors of early care and educations programs that provide care to children not yet in kindergarten.

Other: No intervention is being administered.

Workforce (Classroom Staff)

Interviews conducted with classroom-assigned instructional staff sampled from each center-based provider who completed an interview.

Other: No intervention is being administered.

Interventions

No intervention is being administered. OTHER

No intervention is being administered.

Center-based Providers; Home-based providers; Households; Workforce (Classroom Staff)

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Households with children under 13 years. Individuals providing at least 5 hours' weekly care to children under 13 years not their own in a home-based setting. Early care and education centers serving children not yet in kindergarten. Individuals working in center-based classrooms.

You may qualify if:

• Households with at least one child under the age of 13.
• Individuals who care for a child under 13 who are not their own in a home-based setting for at least five hours a week.
• Center-based 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.
• Respondents for the workforce (classroom staff) survey are selected from the list of instructional staff associated with the randomly selected classroom from the center-based provider interview.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Opinion Research Center: lead
• Child Trends: collaborator
• Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation: collaborator
• Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

NORC at the University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, 60603, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Rupa Datta, PhD

  NORC at the University of Chicago

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: ECOLOGIC OR COMMUNITY
• Time Perspective: CROSS SECTIONAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Distinguished Senior Fellow

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 4, 2023
• First Posted: August 14, 2023
• Study Start: November 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 28, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 28, 2026
• Last Updated: June 4, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)