Data Training Resources from the NSECE

Questions about the data files or documentation? Email the NSECE team at nsece@norc.org

OPRE is sponsoring an NSECE Users’ Group to provide a forum for researchers to learn from one another and to help the NSECE team develop the most useful technical assistance materials. You can join the mailing list for the group.

About the NSECE

The National Survey of Early Care and Education provides a comprehensive picture of the use and availability of early care and education (ECE) across the United States. This study is funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with research set aside funds from the CCDBG Act of 2014.

The NSECE consists of a set of four integrated, nationally representative surveys of:

  1. Households with children under 13,
  2. Home-based providers of ECE,
  3. Center-based providers of ECE, and
  4. The center-based provider workforce.

Together these surveys characterize the supply of and demand for ECE in America and permit better understanding of how well families’ needs and preferences for ECE coordinate with providers’ offerings and constraints.

2012 NSECE. The NSECE was first fielded in 2012. Both public-use and restricted use data have been available to the policy and research communities since 2014 through this site along with technical resources to support further research with these data.

For more information on the design of the 2012 NSECE, please see the summary data collection and sampling methodology report.

For a more detailed picture of the 2012 NSECE sample design, please see the NSECE sampling report.

2019 NSECE. The NSECE was fielded in 2019 to collect updated information and to better understand how the ECE landscape has changed between 2012 and 2019. To meet these objectives, the 2019 NSECE adopted a study design similar to that of the 2012 NSECE and made updates to the NSECE questionnaires to allow for comparisons between the 2012 and 2019 rounds.

NSECE COVID-19 Longitudinal Follow-up. In light of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) funded a new data collection effort beginning in 2020 to learn how the pandemic was affecting ECE providers and the individuals who work directly with children in ECE settings. The NSECE project team sought to re-interview center-based providers, center-based workforce members, listed home-based providers, and unlisted and paid home-based providers, who completed surveys in the 2019 NSECE. Households participating in the 2019 NSECE were not included in the NSECE COVID-19 Longitudinal Follow-up. Data collection for the NSECE COVID-19 Longitudinal Follow-up took place across two waves between late 2020 and early 2022.

Getting to Know the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education

Slides