Child Care Licensing Study, United States, 2012-2014 (ICPSR 37026)
Version Date: May 25, 2018 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Sheri Fischer, United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance;
Tara Orlowski, National Association for Regulatory Administration
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37026.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The 2014 Child Care Licensing Study provides information collected about child care licensing programs and policies and the regulations for childcare centers, family child care homes, and group child care homes for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the two U.S. Territories (Guam and the Virgin Islands). The data about States and Territories' licensing policies, including facility monitoring, enforcement of licensing regulations, and licensing program staffing, were gathered by the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) in the 2014 NARA Child Care Licensing Programs and Policies Survey. NARA sent an online survey to all state child care licensing agencies in September 2014. Respondents submitted their answers via the Internet, and by January 2015, all States had responded.
The data from the Licensing Survey cover the following topical areas:
- Number of licensed facilities
- Complaint investigations
- Licensing staff
- Enforcement actions
- Types of inspections
- Licensing information on the Internet
- Frequency of inspections
- Licensing fees
- Frequency of licensing
- Licensing staff requirements
- Inspections and monitoring
- Licensing's role in quality initiatives
The child care center licensing regulations used for this study were compiled by the National Center for Early Childhood Quality Assurance from the regulations posted on the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC) website between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2014. That site is no longer active but directs users to the National Database of Child Care Licensing Regulations. The licensing regulations data cover the following areas:
- Licensing regulations
- Additional staff training requirements
- Definition of licensed child care centers
- Child-staff ratios and group size
- Staff roles and age requirements
- Supervision of children
- Staff qualifications and ongoing training requirements
- Care of children
- Facility requirements and
- Staff hiring requirements
The same web site was used to collect licensing regulations covering the above listed topics for small family child care homes and large/group family child care homes.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
state
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
The licensing study and research briefs are a joint effort between the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) and the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance. The following briefs are being disseminated in conjunction with the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance:
Trends In Child Care Center Licensing Regulations And Policies For 2014
Trends In Family Child Care Home Licensing Regulations And Policies For 2014
Trends In Group Child Care Home Licensing Regulations And Policies For 2014
Due to the limitations of the Stata and R statistical software packages for lengthy qualitative/open-ended data, variables greater than 244 characters will be available in Microsoft Excel format only.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The role of licensing in the early care and education system is to provide a mandatory floor of program standards and monitoring that will protect children from physical harm and enhance learning and development. Within the early care and education system, licensing covers the broadest content, the largest number of children ages birth to school-age, and the largest population of providers.
Using data compiled from state child care licensing regulations and the results of a survey of state licensing agencies, research briefs examine the state of licensing in 2014 and identify trends that have become apparent during several years of data collection. The findings provide evidence that states are making positive changes in their licensing requirements and policies to protect the health and safety of children in out-of-home care.
Universe View help for Universe
State child care licensing agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories of Guam and Virgin Islands.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Responses were received from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. Territories - Guam and the Virgin Islands
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2018-05-25
Version History View help for Version History
2018-05-25 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Standardized missing values.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.