DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38445.v3
title: National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Level 1 Restricted-Use Files, [United States], 2019
title: Version 3

description: The 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (2019 NSECE) is a set of four nationally-representative integrated surveys conducted in 2019 of 1) households with children under age 13, 2) home-based early care and education (ECE) providers, 3) center-based ECE providers, and 4) the center-based ECE provider workforce. Together these four surveys characterize the supply of and demand for ECE in the United States and create a better understanding of how well families' needs and preferences coordinate with providers' offerings and constraints. The NSECE surveys make particular effort to measure the experiences of low-income families, as these families are the focus of a significant component of ECE and school-age public policy.


The NSECE was first conducted in 2012. Before that effort, there had been a 20-year long absence of nationally representative data on the use and availability of ECE. The NSECE was conducted again in 2019 to update the information from 2012 and shed light on how the ECE and school-age care landscape changed from 2012 to 2019. The 2019 NSECE followed a similar design as the 2012 survey, including surveying households with children under age 13, home-based providers, center-based providers, and staff working in center-based classrooms.


The 2019 NSECE is funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The project team is led by NORC at the University of Chicago, with partners Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and Child Trends, as well as other collaborating individuals and organizations.


The Level 1 data supplements the public-use data (see National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Public-Use Files, [United States], 2019 (ICPSR 37941)), with minimal overlap of variables across the data files.


For additional information about this study, please see:



NSECE project page on the OPRE website


NSECE study page on NORC's website


NSECE Data Users Page



<b>For quick links to the PDF manuals (for the Quick Tabulation Files) and user's guides (for the Public-Use Files), please visit the Data Training Resources from the NSECE page. In addition, users can select "Documentation Only" from the Download tab on this study homepage to download all NSECE documentation in one zip file. Researchers interested in applying for the Restricted-Use Data Files are encouraged to read the user's guides before completing their application.</b>
description: The primary purpose of the 2019 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 (ECE) and school-age care in the United States in that year. The main objectives of the study included:



Updating the 2012 NSECE, which was the first national portrait of the availability of ECE providers, including those that provide school-age care, for the full spectrum of care providers, including households and providers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.


Identifying ECE and school-age care 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 under age 13 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.
description: The 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) was a coordinated set of four nationally representative surveys pertaining to the supply of early care and education (ECE) and demand for ECE and school-age care in the United States, including the individuals working directly with children. To facilitate over-time comparisons, the 2019 NSECE largely replicates the design of the 2012 NSECE, although both are cross-sectional surveys with no intentional overlap in the households or providers that were sampled.


As in the 2012 NSECE, there were two primary sources of sample for the four surveys: a household sample and a provider sampling frame. NSECE constructed the household sample using an address-based sample of housing units in order to draw a nationally representative sample of the demand for ECE and school-age care. NSECE constructed the provider sampling frame from many administrative lists in order to draw a nationally representative sample of the supply of ECE.


Two surveys used the household sample and three surveys used the provider sampling frame. In the household sample, a household screener identified households who were eligible for the household survey and for the home-based provider survey. In the provider sampling frame, a center-based screener identified providers who were eligible for the center-based provider survey. The center-based provider survey then selected respondents for the workforce survey. Home-based providers were also selected for the home-based provider survey from the provider sampling frame.
description: The Level 1 data file contains data that were either recoded in the public-use data files (see National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Public-Use Files, [United States], 2019 (ICPSR 37941)) or excluded from those files, because of concerns over the risk that respondents may be re-identified using such data.
description: Please refer to the accompanying user's guides and manuals for weighting information and usage for all datasets.
description: Response Rates: 
2019 Response Rates



Household survey: A total of 93,875 screening interviews were completed, for a weighted screener completion rate of 85.7 percent. From these, 8,576 eligible households completed a household interview, yielding a weighted interview completion rate of 64.4 percent. The overall weighted response rate is 55.2 percent.


Home-based provider survey: NSECE data includes a combined total of 5,901 listed and unlisted home-based provider interviews. For listed home-based providers, eligibility was confirmed for a total of 6,709 home-based providers, for a weighted screener completion rate of 74.9 percent. From these, 4,231 eligible listed home-based providers completed a home-based provider interview, yielding a weighted interview completion rate of 90.5 percent. The overall weighted response rate is 67.8 percent. For unlisted home-based providers, a total of 93,492 screening interviews were completed, for a weighted screener completion rate of 79.2 percent. From these, 1,670 eligible unlisted home-based providers completed an unlisted home-based provider interview, yielding a weighted interview completion rate of 57.5 percent. The overall weighted response rate for unlisted providers is 45.5 percent.


Center-based provider survey: A total of 16,211 screening interviews were completed, for a weighted screener completion rate of 89.2 percent. From these, 6,917 eligible center-based providers completed a center-based interview, yielding a weighted interview completion rate of 69.9 percent. The overall weighted response rate is 62.4 percent.


Workforce survey: Altogether, 5,192 interviews were completed with workforce respondents. A total of 7,044 center-based provider questionnaires were completed with adequate data to sample a workforce respondent, for a weighted screener completion rate of 99.2 percent. From these, 5,192 eligible workforce employees completed a workforce interview, yielding a weighted interview completion rate of 72.0 percent. The overall weighted response rate is 70.9 percent.
description: The 2019 NSECE sample design was a multistage probability design. In the first stage, the NSECE selected 219 primary sampling units (PSUs) across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The NSECE allocated PSUs to states by size based on the population of children under age 18 within each state. In the second stage, the NSECE selected secondary sampling units (SSUs) for the household sample. Because the experiences of low-income families are of special interest in public policy addressing early care and education (ECE) and school-age care, the NSECE sample design included a low-income oversample. The NSECE disproportionately selected SSUs from areas in which at least 40 percent of households had income below 250 percent of federal poverty guidelines. Altogether, the NSECE selected 747 SSUs, with 508 SSUs in these high density lower-income areas and 239 in areas with lower densities of low-income households. The large majority of PSUs in the 2019 NSECE were also part of the 2012 NSECE, although SSUs were newly sampled for 2019 within the PSUs, so census tracts overlap in the two years only by chance.


As mentioned under the "Study Design" section, there were two primary sources of sample for the four 2019 NSECE surveys. The first was the household sample, which was an address-based sample of housing units. The NSECE project selected the household sample from the Delivery Sequence File (DSF) maintained by the United States Postal Service.


The second primary source of the 2019 NSECE sample was the provider sampling frame. The NSECE constructed a sampling frame of "listed" providers from administrative lists in order to draw a nationally representative sample of the supply of ECE. The NSECE project team built the provider sampling frame through compiling and geo-coding all available state-level and national lists of providers of ECE collected from various agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These lists of providers included licensing, regulation, and license-exempt lists, as well as lists of providers in specific programs such as those offering Head Start or public pre-K.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Workforce Restricted-Use Data File
DS2: Center-based Provider Restricted-Use Data File
DS3: Home-based Provider Restricted-Use Data File
DS4: Household Data Restricted-Use File
description: Households with children under age 13, center-based providers for children age birth through five years, not yet in kindergarten, and home-based providers of care for children up to age 13, in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: Country
description: face-to-face interview; paper and pencil interview (PAPI); self-enumerated questionnaire; telephone interview; web-based surveyWe encourage users to access the 2019 NSECE quick tabulation manuals, user's guides, and surveys provided by NORC.
This collection is related to the following studies:


National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE), [United States], 2012 (ICPSR 35519)


National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Public-Use Files, [United States], 2019 (ICPSR 37941)


National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) COVID-19 Longitudinal Follow-up, [United States], 2019-2022 (ICPSR 38578)