Resource Library

This review of research on relationship-based care practices outlines considerations for implementing these practices in Early Head Start and childcare centers serving infants and toddlers...

Three principles of scale development — Dimensionality, Item Selection, & Item Scoring are especially relevant for Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) rating scales. This brief describes how using these principles can help in the development and refinement of QRIS rating scales. Attention to these principles will enhance the ability of QRIS ratings to achieve the goal of predicting observed quality scores and child outcomes...

This white paper addresses the 2018 revision of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC). Federal statistical agencies use the SOC to classify workers and jobs into occupational categories. ACF’s proposals in this paper include changes to the titles, definitions, and placement of the occupations involving the early childhood care and education (ECCE) workforce....

This report details 14 tribes and tribal organizations’ implementation of service coordination efforts across Tribal TANF and child welfare services. It describes the tribes and tribal organizations, explores their journeys to strengthen tribal families, identifies project facilitators and challenges, and shares lessons learned...

Child welfare practitioners need effective tools to gauge children’s immediate safety and risk of future maltreatment. This brief is a resource for human service professionals on child safety and risk assessments in AI/AN communities.

This report offers a national picture of selected segments of the early care and education market by describing how important attributes of the supply and demand for center-based care relate to each other.

This report summarizes findings of a literature review and research syntheses in three areas — implementation science, early care and education quality, and costs. The goal of this effort was to create a draft conceptual framework to guide development of measures for the implementation and costs of early care and education in center-based settings that serve children from birth to age 5...

These two publications address the issues facing early care and education providers because of monitoring by multiple agencies and organizations...

The descriptive brief provides an overview of the qualifications and the professional development activities of the nation’s infant/toddler workforce, based on representative data collected by the National Survey of Early Care and Education. The goal of this brief is to help the field better understand the strengths and needs of the infant/toddler workforce in center-based as well as home-based early care and education programs...

This research review addresses the question:

What evidence do we have from the literature on associations between infant/toddler teacher and caregiver preparation (e.g., education, credentials, etc.) and quality of caregiving and child outcomes?...