Clinical Research Directory

2024 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE)

Sponsor: National Opinion Research Center

Summary

The National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) captures families' needs, preferences, and choices of non-parental care for children under age 13 and providers' child care and early education offerings. Since the NSECE was last conducted in 2019, the landscape of ECE has changed dramatically. Funding for early childhood programming has grown as policymakers recognize the important role access to ECE plays for families as a work support for parents and an investment in children's future educational and economic opportunities. At the same time, beginning in 2020, the nation experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to significant shifts in the U.S. economy. These circumstances likely altered parents' use of ECE and the labor market and economic forces in which ECE providers operate. The 2024 NSECE builds on findings from the 2012 and 2019 NSECE to allow for comparisons of supply and demand of child care and early education over the 12 years that span data collection. The 2024 NSECE aims to inform future policy discussions about child care and early education at the local, state, and national levels by providing data to: * Build on the efforts and lessons from the 2012 and 2019 NSECE to allow for comparisons of child care and early education supply and the early care and education workforce from 2012 to 2024 * Capture the characteristics of households with children under age 13, such as parental employment status and schedules, preferences and choices of non-parental care, and other factors that affect their need for and access to child care and early education * Document how the field of child care and early education responded to policy initiatives during the period between 2012 and 2024, including changes in supply and demand during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020

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