Design Phase of the National Study of Child Care Supply and
Demand—2010 (NSCCSD—2010)
December 17, 2008
This statement covers a feasibility test for the Design Phase of the National Study of Child Care Supply and Demand—2010 (NSCCSD), sponsored by the Administration for Children & Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services. The Design Phase is constructing sampling and questionnaire designs and other plans and recommendations for the NSCCSD, which will be the first national survey of child care supply and demand in America in twenty years during which the use and funding of early care and education as well as (before and) after-school care has changed dramatically. NSCCSD will be able to provide a current picture of the supply and demand for child care and early education programs and fill a gap in our understanding of the factors influencing parents’ choice of care for their children. The NSCCSD would be a major effort, both in expenditure of public funds as well as response burden among households and individual and institutional providers of care to children under age 13. A multi-faceted feasibility test is necessary to estimate costs and to construct questionnaire, sampling, and data collection methodologies that are most likely to function well in the main study.
To execute the feasibility test, ACF has contracted with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and Child Trends in addition to a group of outside consultants and an expert panel to design a study that will address relevant policy and practice questions that can inform discussions and decisions made at the state and national levels regarding child care and education services for all children, and in particular, low-income households. NORC will oversee all data collection activities for the feasibility test.
The purpose of this study is to inform the implementation of the National Study of Child Care Supply and Demand 2010 with design options to match research goals and budget constraints. According to current plans, a significant advantage of the NSCCSD over recent studies is the dual emphasis on both the supply and demand sides of the market. The two have not been studied together in a nationally-representative study in two decades. In fact, a comprehensive nationally-representative supply-side profile has not been constructed since that time. In addition to replicating the breadth on the supply-side from the 1989-1990 studies, the NSCCSD design aspires to include the family, friend and neighbor sector of providers, which would be a significant expansion over the previous design. Also on the supply side, the previous studies included only providers that served pre-school (and possibly other) children. The current proposal for the NSCCSD includes school-age only programs and other providers that serve the under-13 age group, whether or not they offer pre-school services.
Research questions for the feasibility test have been developed to investigate factors influencing the supply and demand of the child care market and in turn uniquely inform current child care policy. For example, the household questionnaire will collect data about families’ usage, need for and access to child care throughout the week, while the supply side surveys will gather information about hours of operation of both center and home-based providers. The combination of these data will indicate service gaps and alternative care options selected by parents.
Proposed activities include the following tasks that will occur across four data collection sites as indicated below:
After-school sample screening: Screening of potential after-school programs identified through a variety of list-building activities (sites 1, 2, and 3)
Administration of household survey: A random-digit-dial survey of households with children under age 13 and households with individuals who provide home-based care to children under age 13 (sites 1 and 2)
Administration of provider surveys: Fielding provider questionnaires with center-based and licensed home-based providers identified from administrative lists (sites 1 and 2) as well as those identified through direct household screening for home-based providers and selected home-based and center-based providers identified through household surveys conducted under task B above.
Supplemental parent interviews: qualitative data collection regarding subsidy receipt with parents receiving care from selected child-care providers (sites 3 and 4)
Supplemental provider interviews: qualitative data collection regarding provider finances and staff qualifications from a variety of staff members at selected child-care providers (sites 3 and 4)
Specific questions to be answered by the Design Phase feasibility test include:
1. Questionnaire Performance. a) How well are the questionnaires functioning in terms of length of administration, respondent ability to answer questions, and rudimentary review of collected data? b) Do comparisons of parent reports with provider records indicate that the quality of subsidy information is adequate for inclusion of these items in the main study? c) What questionnaire changes are advised based on investigation of proxy reporting in large providers, especially regarding financial data and/or staff characteristics/classroom practices.
2. Defining the Market. What overlap do we see geographically between providers used by the household survey respondents and providers sampled for the supply-side? What are the implications for the appropriate degree of overlap for provider and household sampling areas for the main study?
3. Provider Sampling. a) Is direct screening for informal care providers feasible, and does it seem to impose excessive burden on selected households? b) Is sampling through household interview nominations feasible for (unlistable) center-based after-school providers and/or for informal care providers? c) Is the proposed strategy for building frames of providers cost-effective and does it yield adequate coverage of programs? What level of screening of potential programs would be required for the main study?
4. Data collection issues. a) What privacy issues will be particularly important to tackle, for example, in collecting geographical and other identifying information from households, collecting provider identifying information from households, and possibly in collecting releases for administrative data? b) What staff positions in larger programs are likely to be associated with highest quality responses? What operational issues are associated with trying to pursue those respondent types exclusively or primarily?
Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for administration of the household questionnaire will used. CATI interviews reduce respondent burden and produce data that can be prepared for release and analysis faster and more accurately than is the case with pencil-and-paper interviews. A web questionnaire to childcare providers will also be provided.
The design of the NSCCSD calls for several components which have not been found together in a single design, if found at all in recent work. These include: 1) simultaneous and integrated collection of demand and supply-side data on child-care in a single study design; 2) coverage of care issues for all children up to age 13; 3) inclusion of family, friend and neighbor providers on both the supply and demand sides; and 4) nationally representative design, rather than focus on particular sub-sets such as low-income or selected geographic areas. Because the NSCCSD design would be unique among existing data collections, a feasibility test of that design also has unique features that are not duplicative of existing efforts. Nonetheless, the Design Phase of the NSCCSD has taken care to consult extensively with representatives of surveys most similar to various components of the NSCCSD design, including individuals knowledgeable about the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort, the National Household Education Study, the National Study of America’s Families, the 1990 National Child Care Survey and Profile of Child Care Settings, the National study of Child Care in Low-Income Families, and Child Care Voucher Programs: Provider Experience in Five Counties.
Data collection for the NSCCSD may impact small organizations involved in the administration of center and home-based provider surveys. All efforts will be made to minimize the burden of survey participation on these providers. Each organization will be asked to complete a single questionnaire and will be able to designate the appropriate respondent within the staff ranks. Finally, an advanced payment to respondents will be sent to provider organizations, both center and home-based, in order to mitigate the burden of participation. These payments may be used to support child care operations by these providers. Surveys will be conducted via telephone or web interview at the convenience of the provider.
This study includes one feasibility test round, which will inform the NSCCSD projected to be fielded in 2010. Since no repetition is proposed for the feasibility test, there is no opportunity to collect data less frequently.
None of the listed special circumstances apply.
One comment was received as a result of the 60 day Federal Register notice published in Volume 73, No. 212 on October 31, 2008. The comment requested copies of the questionnaires but did not otherwise comment on the merits of the data collection.
The Design Phase of the NSCCSD has convened two meetings of its expert panel (December 2007 and October 2008). Expert panel members come from research organizations and universities and include the following individuals:
Gina Adams Senior Research Associate Urban Institute |
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Steve Barnett Director National Institute for Early Education Research Rutgers University |
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Doug Besharov Joseph J and Violet Jacobs Scholar in Social Welfare Studies American Enterprise Institute |
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Richard Brandon Director Human Services Policy Center University of Washington |
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Ann Collins Senior Associate Abt Associates, Inc. |
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Michael Lopez Executive Director National Center for Latino Child and Family Research |
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Marcia Meyers Associate Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs University of Washington |
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Christine Ross Senior Researcher Mathematica Policy Research |
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In addition to panelists, a group of consultants who are content experts in the area of child care are a key element of the study design process, providing regular feedback on all study tasks and assisting the study team to identify relevant content issues that should be considered during this process. The following consultants are participating in this study:
Lee Kreader Columbia University/National Center for Children in Poverty |
Reeva Murphy National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center |
Deanna Schexnayder University of Texas—Austin |
Roberta Weber Oregon State University |
Martha Zaslow Child Trends |
In addition to the expert panelists and consultants listed above, a number of federal representatives from ACF, Department of Education, Child Care Bureau, and Bureau of Labor Statistics have also attended the expert panel meetings and/or provided related content expertise.
Federal employees providing consultation from outside of the Department of Health and Human Services include: Alison Aughinbaugh, Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chris Chapman, National Center for Education Statistics; and Lynda Laughlin, Bureau of the Census.
9. Payment to Respondents
NSCCSD Design Phase feasibility test sample members will be offered a small stipend to offset costs associated with participation in the study.
Listed providers will be sent a $10 respondent payment in advance of their participation, with an additional $20 upon completion of the interview. Center-based after-school programs identified through the household interview will follow the same protocol.
Household interview respondents’ eligibility for payments will depend on factors contributing to respondent burden. Households will be offered $20 for interview completion if one or more of the following applies: 1) the household contains three or more children under age 13; 2) the screener informant is not eligible to be the household interview respondent, or 3) the household is eligible for provider and household (demand) questionnaires.
Home-based providers identified through household screening or via nomination in the household interview will receive a $10 payment after they have completed the survey. Some household (parent) interview respondents may decline to provide contact information about their home-based child-care providers due to privacy concerns. These households would be asked to provide study information to the provider themselves, including a toll-free number for contacting survey staff. An additional $10 will be available to home-based child-care providers who contact the project for survey completion.
Respondents will receive information about privacy protections when they consent to participate in the study. Information about privacy will be repeated in the introductory comments of interviewers. All interviewers will be knowledgeable about privacy procedures and will be prepared to describe them in detail or to answer any related questions raised by respondents.
We have crafted carefully worded consent language that explains in simple, direct language the steps we will take to protect the privacy of the information each sample member provides. Assurances of privacy related to the household and provider interviews will be given to each respondent as he or she is recruited for the study. Parents will be assured that their responses will not be shared with their childcare providers, providers will be assured that their responses will not be shared with other providers participating in the study. All respondents will be notified that their responses will be reported only as part of aggregate statistics across all participating sample members.
NORC’s safeguards for the security of data include: storage of printed survey documents in locked space at NORC, and protection of computer files at NORC and its subcontractors against access by unauthorized individuals and groups. Protection of the privacy of individuals is accomplished through the following steps: oral permission for the interview is obtained from all respondents, after the interviewer ensures that the respondent has been provided with a copy of the appropriate NORC privacy information and understands that participation is voluntary, and information identifying respondents is separated from the questionnaire and placed into a separate database.
At the close of the household interview, respondents are requested to provide consent for the project to access administrative records from government subsidy programs. Parents who grant such consent are then requested to provide the full names, dates of birth, and the street address of their children under age 13. Such sensitive information is required in order to match administrative records to survey data. The availability and use of child-care subsidies is a key research topic of this study. These data require extensive questionnaire batteries for collection and are even then very difficult for parents to report accurately. Collection of administrative records would improve the quality of subsidy data and reduce respondent burden for subsidy recipients and non-recipients. Respondents are free to refuse consent for records access, and in this case will not be asked for personal identifying information.
The provider questionnaires ask for street address (or nearest street intersection) for the purposes of geographic mapping. Because households typically use child-care providers who are located in close proximity to the home address, understanding the locations of households and their providers is essential to depicting the supply and demand for child care across the nation.
ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATES
Instrument |
Annual Number of Respondents |
Number of Responses per Respondent |
Average Burden Hours per Response |
Estimated Cost per Hour |
Estimated Annual Burden Hours |
Total Cost Burden |
Eligibility calls to Before/After School Programs |
150 |
1 |
.2 |
$15.00 |
30 |
$450 |
Household screening calls |
1000 |
1 |
.15 |
$18.00 |
150 |
$2700 |
Telephone calls with households with children under age 13 |
160 |
1 |
.5 |
$16.50 |
80 |
$1320 |
Telephone calls with providers of home-based care |
104 |
1 |
.3 |
$11.50 |
31.2 |
$359 |
Telephone calls with center-based providers of before/after school care |
68 |
1 |
.5 |
$24.00 |
34 |
$816 |
In-person interviews with parents of children in non-parental care |
50 |
1 |
.4 |
$16.50 |
20 |
$330
|
In-person interviews with child-care provider staff |
50 |
1 |
.4 |
$19.00 |
20 |
$380 |
Annual Estimate: 365.2 $6,355
The burden table included above differs from the one published in the 60 day FRN due to the realization that 2 identical sets of instruments were incorrectly listed separately based upon different respondent selection criteria. As a result, these instruments have been consolidation in the burden table above, without a change to the original total annual burden estimate. The 30 day notice published in the Federal Register reflects this change.
The only cost burden imposed on respondents is the cost of their time. To compute the total estimated annual cost, the total burden hours were multiplied by the average hourly wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, 2005. The total estimated annual cost to respondents is $6,355.1
13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers
Respondents will not incur any capital, start-up, operation and maintenance, or purchase of service costs.
The total estimated cost of the NSCCSD feasibility test is $318,000. This cost includes survey management, data collection, cleaning and preparation of data files for evaluation, and data analysis and report writing to summarize the lessons learned from the feasibility test.
The feasibility test proposes a new, one-time data collection from respondents.
As this effort is a design task in preparation for a future national study, no data findings will be published. Reporting on the feasibility test will be methodological in nature, emphasizing implications for the design of an NSCCSD main study.
The time schedule for data collection, tabulation and report delivery to DHHS is listed below.
Questionnaire Development October 2007 – October 2008
Study Design October 2007 – March 2009
Cognitive Testing June 2008 – December 2008
Feasibility Test Data Collection April 2009 – June 2009
Data Processing June 2009 – August 2009
Data Analysis and Report Writing June 2009 – September 2009
The nature of the questionnaires and sample design require that data collection be conducted with families while school-year activities are still in session. The April-June 2009 feasibility test period is therefore essential to a valid implementation of the feasibility test.
Does not apply.
We do not have any exceptions in Item 19, “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions,” of OMB form 83-I.
1 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, 2005. Average hourly wage of college teachers, social scientists, legislators, and public administration officials.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | SUMMARY |
| Author | bowman-marietta |
| Last Modified By | USER |
| File Modified | 2009-01-07 |
| File Created | 2009-01-07 |