Understanding The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE)

This page includes copies of three national surveys conducted in 2023 by the TRLECE project team; survey respondents include: 1) state and territory child care and early education (CCEE) licensing administrators, 2) front-line CCEE licensing staff who conduct monitoring and inspections for licensed providers in each state and D.C. and 3) licensed CCEE providers (both center-based and family child care settings) in each state and D.C.

This report summarizes results from a national survey of child care and early education front-line licensing staff and presents a high-level description of who front-line licensing staff are, what they do, and how they view licensing.

This brief presents and compares licensing administrator, front-line licensing staff, and CCEE provider views of the role of licensing, the role of licensing staff, and licensing regulations.

Child care and early education (CCEE) licensing systems establish regulations that must be met to legally operate a child care program. Licensing systems also monitor and enforce these regulations. This collection of short resources from The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE) project highlights characteristics of frontline licensing staff roles and approaches to implementing some licensing functions.

This study examines the association between licensing violations and QRIS ratings in three states.

This report describes the methodology for the TRLECE project’s three surveys regarding child care and early education (CCEE) licensing (i.e., surveys of CCEE licensing administrators, front-line licensing staff, and CCEE providers).

This analysis explores the components of and commonalities among child care and early education licensing guidance documents.

This literature synthesis organizes and reviews literature related to individual elements and outcomes of child care and early education licensing and identifies gaps and areas for future research.

This brief offers considerations for improving the quality of licensing data, which can benefit licensing staff, families searching for child care and early education, and researchers.

This report is for child care and early education licensing staff and partners interested in increasing their understanding and working toward improving aspects of licensing by gathering information from providers about their experiences and perspectives.

A case study of four state child care and early education licensing agencies’ approaches to working with license-exempt providers.

This resource defines terms used in The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education products.

A case study of technical assistance approaches to support child care providers in understanding licensing regulations in four states.

This report synthesizes research and describes key considerations for state/territory CCEE facilities needs assessments that could be compiled into a national picture of facility remediation needs and costs.

Share documents that help child care licensing staff in your state or territory make decisions. The information you share will inform the Understanding The Role of Licensing in Early Care and Education (TRLECE) project.

The CCEE Licensing Information Hub is a tool to explore national and state/territory-level data on licensing characteristics and functions.