DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39175.v1
title: The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE), United States, 2023
title: Version 1

description: State/territory Child Care and Early education (CCEE) licensing agencies establish and monitor regulations that child care programs serving young children must meet to legally operate. These regulations and monitoring practices play a large role in the operations of CCEE programs. The TRLECE project (The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education) includes a collection of three descriptive surveys to deepen the CCEE field's understanding of CCEE licensing systems, which play a critical role in supporting positive outcomes for providers, families, and children.
Data collection involved three national surveys with state/territory CCEE licensing administrators (DS1 and DS2), front-line CCEE licensing staff (DS3), and licensed CCEE providers (both center-based and family child care providers) (DS4). These surveys provide information on the licensing unit, characteristics and perceptions of licensing administrators, front-line staff's characteristics, experiences, and perceptions of licensing, and provider's experiences and perceptions of licensing.
description: The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) worked with Child Trends to conduct The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE) project to identify and address gaps in the knowledge about licensing.
This study included three surveys with intended purposes:

The purpose of the Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) licensing administrator survey (DS1 and DS2) was to gather information about state and territory licensing, as well as administrators' perceptions, challenges, and ideas to improve CCEE licensing.
The purpose of the front-line CCEE licensing staff survey (DS3) was to better understand front-line licensing staff characteristics, perceptions of their roles, and job challenges.
The purpose of the CCEE provider survey (DS4) was to understand provider experiences and perceptions of the state CCEE licensing.
description: This study includes three surveys: the Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) licensing administrator survey (DS1 and DS2), the front-line CCEE licensing staff survey (DS3), and CCEE provider survey (DS4). These surveys were designed to provide information on the licensing units, characteristics and perceptions of licensing administrators, front-line staff members' characteristics, experiences, and perceptions of licensing, and providers' experiences and perceptions of licensing. Each survey was administered via a web-based survey, however the CCEE provider survey (DS4) had a telephone survey option as well.
description: <b>Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) Licensing Administrator Survey (DS1 and DS2):</b> The variables in these datasets include licensing unit characteristics, characteristics of CCEE licensing staff, administrators' demographic characteristics, background and experiences, perceptions of licensing, and ideas for improving licensing.
<b>Front-line CCEE Licensing Staff Survey (DS3):</b> The variables in this dataset include demographic characteristics, background and experience, job duties, perceptions of their role, professional development, supervision, burnout, relationships with providers, and ideas for improving licensing.
<b>CCEE Provider Survey (DS4):</b> The variables in this dataset include experiences with CCEE licensing, including regulations, inspections, opportunities to provide feedback, and available supports, ideas about what's working well and what could be improved, and demographic characteristics.
description: <b>Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) Licensing Administrator Survey (DS1 and DS2):</b> There are no analysis weights for the CCEE Licensing Administrator Survey dataset.
<b>Front-line CCEE Licensing Staff Survey (DS3):</b> The dataset includes a response weight variable (<b>F_WEIGHT</b>) to account for different response rates by state. This weight variable must be used in any analysis.
<b>CCEE Provider Survey (DS4):</b> The dataset includes a weight variable (<b>P_WEIGHT</b>) that incorporates nonresponse and post-stratification factors. This variable must be used in any analysis.
description: Response Rates: <b>Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) licensing administrator survey (DS1 and DS2):</b> 57 CCEE licensing administrators were invited to participate. One state had different administrators for CCEE centers and family child care homes, so there were 51 CCEE licensing administrators from states, 1 from the District of Columbia, and 5 from territories invited. The total number of usable responses for the licensing administrator survey was 43. The overall response rate was 75%, which was calculated by dividing the number of usable responses by number recruited (43 / 57 = .75).
<b>Front-line CCEE Licensing Staff Survey (DS3):</b> 3,102 front-line staff were invited to participate, either directly by the research team or by their state licensing administrator. Of the 3,102 surveys distributed, the research team obtained usable responses from 1,153 and those are the cases in the analysis data set. The research team calculated response rates using the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers' Standard Response Rate 4 (American Association for Public Opinion, 2023). The overall response rate was 42%. The state-by-state response rate ranged from 11% to 100%.
<b>CCEE Provider Survey (DS4):</b> 9,746 providers were invited to participate. The total number of usable responses was 2,897. The research team calculated response rates using the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers' Standard Response Rate 4 (American Association for Public Opinion, 2023). The overall response rate was 40%. The state-by-state response rate ranged from 26% to 62%.
description: Presence of Common Scales: 
5-point Likert-type scale.
The front-line Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) licensing staff survey includes an adaptation of the Job Commitment scale from the Early Childhood Job Satisfaction Survey (Bloom, P. J. 2010) and the Mentoring subscale from the Reflective Supervision Rating Scale (Gallen et al., 2016).
description: <b>Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) Licensing Administrator Survey (DS1 and DS2):</b> The research team invited licensing administrators in every U.S. state (n = 51 because one state had different administrators for CCEE centers and family child care homes) and territory (n = 5), plus the District of Columbia (n = 1), to respond to the survey.
<b>Front-line CCEE Licensing Staff Survey (DS3):</b> The research team aimed to recruit all front-line CCEE licensing staff from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. No sampling took place.
<b>CCEE Provider Survey (DS4):</b> The research team created a provider sampling frame that included the entire target population of licensed CCEE providers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The research team developed this list primarily using information published on state licensing websites, with some lists obtained directly from states. The sampling frame included 106,814 center-based programs and 101,983 family child care homes. From this list, the research randomly selected 5,118 center providers and 4,628 family child care homes for recruitment. Therefore, the probability sample selected to represent the universe of licensed CCEE providers consisted of approximately 10,000 providers.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Child Care and Early Education Licensing Administrator Survey Data Part 1
DS2: Child Care and Early Education Licensing Administrator Survey Data Part 2
DS3: Front-line Child Care and Early Education Licensing Staff Survey Data
DS4: Child Care and Early Education Provider Survey Data
description: Child care and early education licensing administrators in the United States and US Territories, front-line child care and early education licensing staff in the United States, and licensed child care and early education providers in the United States in 2023. Smallest Geographic Unit: State
description: web scraping; telephone interview; web-based survey<b>Project Acknowledgement:</b> The TRLECE Project Team included staff from Child Trends, ICF, and OPRE.There is only one Child Care and Early Education (CCEE) licensing administrator in each state, so the state variable is not included in the Child Care and Early Education Licensing Administrator Survey Data Part 2 (DS2) to protect respondents' identity. Additional details can be found in the accompanying User Guide documentation.