Case Studies of Child Care and Development Fund Lead Agencies' Consumer Education Strategies

Plain-language summary

The Administration for Children \& Families (ACF) has contracted with NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) to conduct a study examining consumer education and parental choice in child care and early education (CCEE). The purpose of this study is to conduct case studies with up to six states, territories, or tribes to document innovative or promising strategies that help parents looking for and selecting CCEE that meet their family's needs. The research team identified select strategies to examine based on findings from an environmental scan the project team previously completed that was designed to uncover consumer education strategies that are innovative or promising in terms of reaching families, and go beyond federal requirements. The study team selected five states and one territory: California, Georgia, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). This study collected information about (a) how and why each case chose to use the identified consumer education strategy; (b) efforts involved to develop and implement the strategy; (c) barriers and facilitators to implementation; and (d) parent's perspectives on and knowledge of the resources available to them to help look for and select CCEE. The study team designed the case studies to obtain data from people with a vested interest in or leadership role related to consumer education strategies and from parents of young children. The team designed semi-structured interviews and focus groups to be conducted via Zoom.gov with participants from each site. Example participants are CCDF administrators and staff and Child Care Resource \& Referral (CCR\&R) agency staff. Second, the study team designed virtual focus groups to be conducted with up to 20 parents in each selected site who had a child under the age of six and were using or had previously looked for CCEE. The team also developed a short web-based survey to administer to parents participating in focus groups to capture descriptive information about study participants, such as demographic characteristics and receipt of child care subsidies.

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