What are the characteristics of children ages birth to 12 years old receiving CCDF subsidies in the state/territory?

A full list of data elements that could be used to describe the characteristics of children under 12 that receive CCDF subsidies in the state can be found in the Child Level set of data elements in this document. The categories of elements related to children are: Identification; Demographics; Screening, Disability and Health; and Early Care and Education Experiences. 

To identify children receiving CCDF subsidies, use the data element Financial Support Types-Child Care Development Fund. While a multitude of descriptive analyses could be performed, examples of a few of these analyses are provided below. For each of the examples, further analyses could be conducted to understand patterns for subgroups of children. For example, additional analysis could examine trends for children by age (birth to 3, 3 to 5, 5 and older) using the data element Child Birth Date or by geographic region in the state using the element Child Address-County. 

Example 1. How many children in the state are receiving CCDF subsidies? Total the number of children with a “Yes” response for the data element Financial Support Type-Child Care Development Fund. Use this number as the denominator for the analyses described below. 

Example 2. What number/percent of children who receive CCDF subsidies have health insurance? 

To answer this question, identify children that have both a CCDF subsidy and health insurance. First, to isolate children with CCDF subsidies, use the data element Financial Support Type and select 

those children with a “Yes” response for the field “Child Care Development Fund.” Next, use the data element Health Insurance Coverage to determine the number of those children (Child ID) with health insurance by assigning a code “0” to the “Yes” responses for the category “None” and another code “1” for each of the types of health insurance. Add up the 1’s for each of the categories. Children with a value of one or more do have health insurance, those with a zero do not. Total the number of children with both a “Yes” response for “Child Care Development Fund” and a code of one or more for Health Insurance Coverage for the number of children with both. Divide that number by the total number of children with a “Yes” response for the data element Financial Support type-Child Care Development Fund for the percentage. 

Example 3. What kinds of early intervention services are children with CCDF subsidies receiving? Select those children with a “Yes” for the category of “Child Care Development Fund” in the data element Financial Support Type. Use the data element Early Intervention or Special Education Services Received to determine the types of services children with developmental delays are receiving. There are 17 non-mutually exclusive types of services a child could receive, each indicated with a “Yes” when a child receives that type of service. To report the frequency of these services, 

divide the number of children with a “Yes” response for any of the fields by the total number of children with a “Yes” response for any of the fields for the element Early Intervention or Special Education Services Received. 

4.6 Enter the number of CCDF children in high quality care by age grouping as of the end of the last fiscal year. 

The data element QRIS Participation History can be used to isolate program sites (Site ID) participating in the state’s QRIS by selecting the option “Program site currently participates in the QRIS.” The quality level of a program is indicated in the QRIS Score data element. QRIS levels may vary across quality rating systems. For example, some QRIS systems may have four quality rating levels and some might have five. Use the QRIS Score data element to capture only those program sites that are at the highest levels of quality however that is defined by the state (typically, the top one or two levels). For reference, the number of quality levels is detailed in the System Level data element QRIS Levels. 

If the state does not have a QRIS, but has another quality improvement systems or initiative use the data element Quality Improvement Participation to isolate program sites (Site ID) participating in the state’s other quality improvement initiative by selecting the option “Program site currently participates in another QI initiative.” 

If the state has neither a QRIS nor another QI initiative but does collect other observational measures of quality (e.g. ERS, CLASS), those can be used to determine which program sites are at the highest levels of quality. Using the example of the CLASS, the CLASS Average Score or the average scores from each of the three domains (Emotional Support, Instructional Support, Classroom Organization) can be used to make designations of high quality although the specific cut- off points in making those determinations are left up to the state. 

Once high quality CCEE programs in the state/territory have been identified, Site ID and Child ID can be used to link a program’s quality level to the children who attend high quality rated programs. This allows for the identification of children enrolled across the previously identified high quality level of programs. The Child Level data element Financial Support Type specifies the type of subsidized care received by children. The field names for this data element include Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) among other types of subsidies. The option set is “Yes” or “No” for each subsidy type. The data can be coded such that any child who has a response of “Yes” to the “CCDF” field in the Financial Support Type data element is given a numeric value of “1” and all other children are given a numeric value of “0.” The Child IDs for children who receive a CCDF subsidy and attend previously identified high quality rated programs can then be counted to determine the total number of children receiving CCDF subsidies who are enrolled in high quality care.  

To categorize children by age grouping (Infant, Toddler, Preschool, School-age), use the Child Birth Date data element. Children’s ages can be calculated by determining the difference in months between the child’s date of birth and any predetermined date of interest. In this case, September 30th, the end of the annual reporting period for the QPR, can be used to determine a child’s age at the end of the reporting period.  The difference in months can be divided by 12 to determine the child’s age in years. Children can then be categorized into age groupings based on their calculated age. The Child IDs for children in each age grouping who receive a CCDF subsidy and attend previously identified high quality rated programs can then be counted to determine the total number of children receiving CCDF subsidies who are enrolled in high quality care by age group.