National Survey of Early Care and Education
National Survey of Early Care and Education
The primary purpose of the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) was to provide
 a comprehensive snapshot of both the availability and utilization of early care and education
 in the United States. The main objectives of the study included:

 -  Providing the first 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 and school-age care (ECE/SA) 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 NSECE is a set of four integrated, nationally representative surveys conducted in 2012.
 These were 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.
In order to create a comprehensive portrait of the availability and use of early care and
 education, the NSECE fielded a set of four integrated, nationally representative surveys in
 2012. These were 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 was 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 were
 identified through the Household Screener based only on the presence of an age-eligible
 child. Screening was completed by mail, by phone, and 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 was conducted with individuals who provide care in a
 home-based setting for children under age 13 who are not their own. Two sample sources
 contributed providers. One, home-based providers who appeared in provider sampling frames
 constructed from state and national lists were sampled for this survey. We designated these
 providers as 'listed.' Listed providers were primarily licensed or regulated family day care
 providers, but also included other formally listed home-based providers such as
 license-exempt providers or providers participating in Early Head Start. Alternatively,
 households could have been identified as eligible based on their responses to the household
 screener (specifically, that an adult in the household regularly cared for children not his
 or her own at least five hours per week in a home-based setting). These providers did not
 appear in the provider sampling frame and are designated as 'unlisted.' Data collection was
 conducted by Internet, 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, 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 offers unprecedented
 nationally representative data on family, friend and neighbor providers and is one of the
 pioneering aspects of the NSECE. We 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 was conducted with directors 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 included regulated, licensed, and other
 private providers as well. The center-based provider questionnaire was preceded by a
 Center-Based Provider Screener that confirmed and updated information from the provider
 sampling frame, determined the availability of school-age after-school care at elementary
 schools, and determined 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.

 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 Provider Survey sample comprised one classroom-assigned instructional staff
 person from each center-based provider who completed a center-based provider interview.
 Workforce respondents were drawn from the center-based provider questionnaire data, in which
 all staff members had 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 were 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. No nationally representative survey of paid ECE
 workers has 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?
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Households with at least one child under the age of 13.

 -  Individuals who care for a child under 13 who is 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 center-based workforce survey are selected from the list of
 instructional staff associated with the randomly selected classroom from the
 center-based provider interview.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -