Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Recent national data suggest that approximately seven million children from birth to age five regularly spend time in some type of home-based child care (NSECE Project Team, 2015a).  However, research suggests that the quality of home-based caregiving environments is quite variable and may fall behind center-based settings (Dowsett, Huston, Imes, & Gennetian, 2008; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2004; Whitebook, Phillips, Bellm, Crowell, Almarex, & Jo, 2004). Moreover, family child care programs participate in quality improvement initiatives at much lower levels than center-based early childhood programs. States are seeking ways to more effectively engage home-based providers in an effort to improve the quality of children’s experiences in this particular context.  The current initiative is a partnership between the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood at the University of Delaware, the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, and the Delaware Office of Early Learning designed to address this issue within our state.  Specifically, this Child Care Partnership grant is intended to study family child care providers’ perceptions and participation in Delaware’s Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) and to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement framework that is uniquely designed to meet the needs of the family child care population.  Relying on both state administrative data as well as primary data collection, the purpose of this series of studies is designed to generate policy-relevant findings to inform state-level revisions to the QRIS.

The initial work of this Child Care Partnership grant was to examine family child care experiences and participation in Delaware’s QRIS and to answer the following research questions: 1) How does family child care provider participation in QRIS differ by program and provider characteristics?; 2) What demographic characteristics predict family child care providers’ participation in QRIS?; and 3) What are the reasons providers participate or do not participate in the QRIS?  Initial analysis of state administrative data suggest that “participators” tend to serve children receiving child care subsidy, reside in urban areas, and be licensed for fewer years.  Administrative data were supplemented with focus groups of “participators” and “non-participators” in the QRIS.  Analysis of these findings highlight incentives important to this population (e.g. additional funds for quality improvement) but also the importance of QRIS as a vehicle to promote a sense of professionalism about family child care providers. 

Study findings have implications for the statewide QRIS at multiple levels, including overall systems design, how assistance is provided within the system, and the types of incentives offered to participating programs.  This presentation will highlight how these findings are currently informing discussions of policy changes in the QRIS at a pivotal policy point in time.  Delaware’s Early Learning Challenge grant is currently ending and decisions regarding what investments need to be made and/or maintained are currently under review.