Considerations in Conducting Child Care and Early Education Facilities Needs Assessments

Publication Date: October 5, 2022
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  • Pages: 43
  • Published: 2022

Introduction

This report addresses the Congressional request to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) for information related to HR 116-450: Child Care Facilities Needs Assessment . This report describes the “feasibility study to determine how a needs assessment of child care facilities could best be conducted by States and compiled by ACF to produce a national estimate of facilities remediation needs and costs (HR 116-450, p.189).”

The report includes an overview of key findings and considerations. It has two appendices: 1) description of relevant research, possible content areas, considerations for states/territories, and possible methods for conducting child care and early education (CCEE) facilities needs assessments; and 2) assumptions and estimated costs of a state/territory CCEE facilities needs assessment.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to provide a synopsis of research findings and key considerations about how states/territories could conduct child care and early education (CCEE) facilities needs assessments that could be compiled into a national estimate of facility remediation needs and costs.

Key Findings and Highlights

Preliminary findings from the 2021 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) COVID-19 Follow-up survey of CCEE directors suggest that almost half had facility acquisition, construction, or renovation needs. There is little available data about the specific facility needs of CCEE programs across the U.S.

This report describes key findings and considerations in eight areas related to collecting new data for CCEE facilities needs assessments:

  1. Specify the settings to include in a CCEE facilities needs assessment.
  2. Determine the content, criteria, and tools to use.
  3. Determine the methods for conducting a needs assessment.
  4. Gather detailed information needed to inform remediation cost estimates.
  5. Identify initial steps and resources, including cost estimates, needed for a state/territory to conduct a CCEE facilities needs assessment.
  6. Provide report templates to ensure that states/territories provide data in a consistent format that can be compiled into a national picture.
  7. Estimate the timeline needed.
  8. Compile the state/territory information into a national picture.

Methods

The team used three methods to gather information for this report: 1) review of facilities needs assessments and other related research, 2) preliminary findings from the 2021 NSECE COVID-19 Follow-up, and 3) secondary data analysis of the 2017 Child Care Licensing Study (CCLS) from all 50 states and DC.

Citation

Maxwell, K., Early, D., & Miranda, B. (2022). Considerations in conducting child care and early education facilities needs assessments. OPRE Report #2022-230. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.