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The Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) initiative was developed to bring together Early Head Start and child care through the layering of funding to provide comprehensive and continuous services to low-income infants, toddlers, and their families.

The purpose of the EHS-CCP National Descriptive Study (NDS) conducted by Mathematica was:

• To assess the knowledge base and develop a theory of change model for understanding EHS-CC Partnerships;
• To develop a theory of change model to articulate relations among key features, characteristics, and expected outcomes of partnerships;
• To develop approaches to measuring partnerships for existing and new data collection efforts;
• To design an evaluation of the new discretionary EHS-CCP grantees.

The purpose of the Sustainability Study, also conducted by Mathematica, was to examine how partnerships from the NDS had fared as of 2022 and the factors that supported or impeded partnership sustainability. The Sustainability Study also looked at features of sustained partnerships (partnerships from the NDS that were still in place at the time of the Sustainability study) as well as active partnerships (which include sustained partnerships as well as those that were new since the NDS, and regardless of whether they were funded through an EHS-CC Partnerships grant).

The Sustainability Study aimed to address the following research questions:

• Were partnerships sustained? How and why did partnerships change over time?
• After partnerships ended, what were the characteristics of the child care providers and the services they offered?
• For partnerships that were sustained, how did features of the partnerships change over time?
• What factors supported or impeded the partnerships' sustainability? Were there differences between sustained and dissolved partnerships in program structures or characteristics, initial partnership quality, or other features?
• Did any of the factors associated with Research Questions 1 to 4 differ across partnerships between EHS programs and center-based child care providers and those between EHS programs and family child care providers?

Because of low response rates for child care providers whose partnerships had dissolved, the data collected is not suitable to fully answer some of these research questions. See the data documentation for more information.

Study Design View help for Study Design

For the National Descriptive Survey (NDS), Mathematica utilized two primary sources of data to create the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) data files.

The first is the Grantee and Delegate Agency Director Survey, which was sent to 250 grantee and 55 delegate agency directors between January and July 2016. The Grantee and Delegate Agency Director Survey consisted of seven main sections:

• basic information about the agency,
• partnership development,
• quality improvement activities,
• services for children and families,
• information about the child care partners,
• partnership funding arrangements, and
• background and experience.

Additionally, in this survey, grantee and delegate agency directors were asked to provide the names and contact information for all of their child care partners, as well as some key characteristics about the partner centers. This identified 1,749 partners (998 child care partners and 761 family child care partners), and these data was compiled into a list, from which 470 partners were randomly selected to receive the Child Care Partner Survey.

This Child Care Partner Survey consisted of seven main sections;

• basic information about the child care business,
• partnership development activities,
• partnership funding arrangements,
• quality improvement activities,
• services for children and families,
• partnership quality, and
• background experience.

For the Sustainability Study, Mathematica utilized three primary sources of data to create the EHS-CCP data files.

The first is the EHS Program Director Survey, which was sent to 250 grantee and delegate agency directors between February and July 2022. The EHS Program Director Survey asked about:

• the program director's agency,
• the status of partnerships active at the time of the NDS and any partnerships formed since that period,
• factors that contributed to the sustainment or dissolution of partnerships,
• the activities programs and providers engaged in to deliver services to children and families through partnerships with child care providers, and
• the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their partnerships.

Additionally, in this survey, EHS program directors were asked to update the names and contact information for their child care partners who were sampled for the NDS.

The second source, the Provider Survey, was fielded between March and July 2022. The Provider Survey was offered in both English and Spanish. The Provider Survey asked about:

• basic information about the child care business,
• activities they engaged in to support the delivery and quality of services provided to children and families, and
• supports they accessed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The third source of data for the Sustainability Study was semi-structured interviews with a sample of child care providers. The semi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2022. The study team drew a purposive sample of providers who were invited to complete the provider survey, varying the sample on key characteristics, such as provider type, time since the end of the partnership (if known), and characteristics of the EHS program. Semi-structured interviews with child care providers asked about:

• the main reasons that the partnerships dissolved and whether these reasons were communicated by the EHS program or provider,
• the timing when issues in the partnership emerged and how child care providers and EHS programs addressed the issues (dissolved partnerships only),
• the services providers continued to offer or stopped offering since the partnership ended, including whether they had to end any services when the partnership ended or whether they were able to sustain them,
• providers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic (both sustained and dissolved partnerships),
• what was working well in sustained partnerships and why,
• the champions of the partnership,
• staff turnover, and
• periods without enrollment slots.

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The NDS surveyed the 250 programs that received EHS-CC Partnerships grants in 2015. The Sustainability Study surveyed the same 250 programs. The 2015 EHS Expansion and EHS-CC Partnerships grants program provided three funding options: (1) funding for EHS-CC Partnerships only (supporting children participating in center-based or family child care programs); (2) funding for EHS Expansion only (for expanding enrollment in EHS); or (3) funding to support both partnerships and expansion. Almost two-thirds of the grants were awarded for EHS-CC Partnerships only; another 30 percent were awarded as a mix of EHS-CC Partnerships and EHS Expansion grants; and the remaining 6 percent were awarded as EHS Expansion-only grants. The NDS included grantees that received funding for EHS-CC Partnerships only and those that received funding for EHS-CC Partnerships and EHS Expansion; it did not include expansion-only grantees. In addition, for the NDS, among grantees awarded funding for both EHS-CC Partnerships and EHS Expansion, the NDS focused on the EHS-CC Partnerships component of their grant.

The NDS web-based surveys of grantee directors asked directors to list all their child care partners. The study team randomly sampled child care partners from this full list of a grantee's partners to participate in a separate survey, sampling both child care center and family child care partners. The EHS-CC Partnerships grantee director web-based survey automatically selected a random sample of at least 20 percent of each type of partner, with a minimum of 1. This procedure resulted in a random sample of 470 child care partners (302 child care center partners and 168 family child care partners). The study team sampled separately by partner type to ensure a robust sample size of family child care partners, because most grantees had only child care center partners. The Sustainability Study surveyed 469 of the 470 child care providers sampled by the NDS (one provider was determined to be ineligible). Of these 469 providers, the Sustainability Study found that 235 were in sustained partnerships (partnerships from the NDS that were still in place at the time of the Sustainability Study) and 167 were in dissolved partnerships (partners from the NDS that were no longer in place at the time of the Sustainability Study). The partnership status of 67 providers was unknown at the time of the Sustainability Study.

In addition, the Sustainability Study collected qualitative data using semi-structured interviews to provide more in-depth information from purposively selected providers in sustained and dissolved partnerships. The study conducted 47 semi-structured interviews with child care providers (28 sustained provider interviews, and 19 dissolved provider interviews).

Time Method View help for Time Method

Universe View help for Universe

Organizations that received an Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership grant in 2015, along with the child care providers they were in partnership with in 2016.

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

NDS: 305 eligible grantees and delegates were identified for the survey. There were 260 completed responses, for a response rate of 85 percent. A total of 220 of 250 EHS-CC Partnership grantees (a response rate of 88 percent) and 40 delegate agencies of the 55 we contacted (a response rate of 73 percent) completed the survey. 470 partners were randomly selected to participate in the survey. A total of 386 of 470 child care partners (a response rate of 82 percent) completed the survey. The completion rate for child care center partners was 84 percent (255 of 302) and for family child care partners it was 78 percent (131 of 168).

Sustainability Study: The response rate was 64.4 percent for the EHS program director survey (161 out of 250 eligible) and 35.4 percent for the provider survey (166 out of 469 eligible). (The NDS provider data file included five cases that appeared in the data files but were not assigned sampling weights. These cases were determined to be ineligible. Four of these cases were not included the count of 470 providers that were surveyed; one case was included in the count. These five cases do not appear in the Sustainability Study provider data file. As a result, the number of providers included in the Sustainability Study data file is 469 providers, rather than the 470 providers listed in the NDS data documentation). Among the 161 EHS program directors who responded to the Sustainability Study survey, 160 had also responded to the NDS survey. Among the 166 providers who responded to the Sustainability Study survey, 156 had also responded to the NDS survey.

Data collection for the Sustainability Study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which might partly contribute to the low response rates.

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2019-04-10

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Weight View help for Weight

NDS: This collection includes weights that were developed to account for nonresponse at the grantee and delegate level. There are separate weights to sum up to the grant level (GRANT_WGT, in Dataset 1), which consist of a grantee and its delegates, and to the program level (PROGRAM_WGT, in Datasets 1 and 2), which is a grantee and its delegates separately.

Dataset 4 also includes weights that were developed to account for nonresponse at the partner level (PARTNER_WGT) and the probability of selection at the partner level (SAMPWT_PARTNER_CUM). These weights make the randomly selected partners representative of the complete universe of child care partners.

For additional information on weighting, please refer to section C "Weights for Survey Responses" of the NDS Data Producer Data Documentation Narrative.

Sustainability Study: The study team produced five weights for the Sustainability Survey: (1) a program-level weight for the program director survey (PROG_SUSTSVY_WT); (2) a provider-level weight for the provider survey (PROV_SUSTSVY_WT); (3) a weight that is to be used when combining the Sustainability Study survey data with the NDS data for directors (PROG_NDS_SUST_WT); (4) a weight that is to be used when combining the Sustainability Study survey data with the NDS data for providers (PROV_NDS_SUST_WT); and (5) a program director survey weight at the provider level (for Sustainability Survey questions asked of directors about their sampled providers) (PROG_PROVLEVEL_SUSTSVY_WT). The program director Sustainability Survey also asked certain questions about each of their providers at the time of the NDS (not just their sampled ones). When making estimates of those responses, the program director Sustainability Study survey weight can be applied to every provider associated with the program.

Given lower than expected provider survey response rates, users should not assume weighted provider survey estimates are representative of all providers who partnered with the first cohort of programs receiving EHS-CCP grants. Users may assume that weighted provider-level estimates from the program director survey represent providers from the first round of EHS-CCP grants.

Weighted program-level estimates from the program director survey may be assumed to represent programs from the first round of EHS-CCP grants.

For additional information about weighting and nonresponse bias analyses can be found in sections II.B.4 and II.B.5, and in Appendix A of the Sustainability Study Data Documentation.

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