The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education: Licensed Providers (TRLECE: LP)

The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE): Surveys Licensed Child Care Providers

Child Trends, funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will collect descriptive information for The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE): Licensed Child Care Providers project. The goal of this information collection is to deepen the field's understanding of child care and early education licensing systems, which play a critical role in supporting positive outcomes for providers, families, and children. The investigators will conduct one round of survey data collection with a nationwide survey of licensed child care providers from all states.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Child Care Providers Perceptions of the Licensing System

Detailed Description

This study aims to advance understanding of the landscape of child care and early education licensing systems. State/territory child care and early education licensing agencies establish and monitor regulations that child care programs serving young children must meet to operate legally. These regulations and monitoring practices play a large role in the operations of child care programs but have received relatively little research attention. The field has limited information about features of state/territory licensing units and limited information about child care and early education providers' experiences and perceptions of licensing (i.e., there are a few findings from individual states but no national survey). Ultimately, TRLECE: Licensed Child Care Providers findings can inform changes to licensing policies and practices in the child care and early education field, guidance and technical assistance to state leaders, and future research.

The investigators will gather information for this descriptive study through a survey of licensed child care provider. This survey is designed to collect information about licensed child care and early education providers' experiences with child care licensing, including regulations and inspections; perceptions of the burden, value, and fairness of the licensing system; and perceived strengths of and challenges with the licensing system. The investigators intend to invite a stratified random sample of directors of center-based programs and family child care providers from all 50 states and the DC to participate and will aim to have 1,000 participants from each group.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 2884

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20814
      • Child Trends Headquarters

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: N/A

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Licensed child care providers

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• A randomly selected group of directors/owners/managers of licensed child care programs (providers) in all U.S. states and DC

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who are not directors/owners/managers of licensed child care programs (providers) in all U.S. states and DC

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Child care provider survey	Survey developed by the study team to gather information regarding child care providers' overall perceptions of the licensing system (including value and burden), availability and utility of licensing information, perceptions of licensing staff and support, perceptions about components of the licensing system (including regulations, inspections, technical assistance, training, written guidance, licensing reports), strengths and challenges of the licensing system, areas for improvement, and demographic and program characteristics	one time

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Child Trends
• Collaborators: Department of Health and Human Services; ICF International, Inc.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Kelly L Maxwell, PhD, Child Trends

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 21, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 4, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): August 4, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 14, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): April 26, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 6, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 5, 2023
• Last Verified: September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Child care and early education; Child care licensing; Early care and education programs
• Other Study ID Numbers: 17187003; 233201500034I-75P00119F37007 (Other Grant/Funding Number: OPRE, ACF, US Dept. Of Health and Human Services (HHSP))

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Deidentified IPD will be shared with the Child & Family Data Archive (CFData).
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The team anticipates submitting IPD and supporting information to Child and Family Data Archive (CFData) roughly 6 months after the end of data collection. Data will be available after being reviewed by CFData. No end date on the availability of the data.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Most data from the child care provider survey will be archived as public-use data with CFData and accessible on their website. Some data will be available as restricted-use only, following guidelines from CFData. Data will be shared with researchers for analyses related to the experiences and perceptions of licensed child care providers about the child care licensing system.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No