Child Care Licensing Study, United States, 2012-2014

The 2014 Child Care Licensing Study provides information collected about child care licensing programs and policies and the regulations for childcare centers, family child care homes, and group child care homes for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the two U.S. Territories (Guam and the Virgin Islands). The data about States and Territories' licensing policies, including facility monitoring, enforcement of licensing regulations, and licensing program staffing, were gathered by the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) in the 2014 NARA Child Care Licensing Programs and Policies Survey. NARA sent an online survey to all state child care licensing agencies in September 2014. Respondents submitted their answers via the Internet, and by January 2015, all States had responded. The data from the Licensing Survey cover the following topical areas: Number of licensed facilities Complaint investigations Licensing staff Enforcement actions Types of inspections Licensing information on the Internet Frequency of inspections Licensing fees Frequency of licensing Licensing staff requirements Inspections and monitoring Licensing's role in quality initiatives The child care center licensing regulations used for this study were compiled by the National Center for Early Childhood Quality Assurance from the regulations posted on the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC) website between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2014. That site is no longer active but directs users to the National Database of Child Care Licensing Regulations. The licensing regulations data cover the following areas: Licensing regulations Additional staff training requirements Definition of licensed child care centers Child-staff ratios and group size Staff roles and age requirements Supervision of children Staff qualifications and ongoing training requirements Care of children Facility requirements and Staff hiring requirements The same web site was used to collect licensing regulations covering the above listed topics for small family child care homes and large/group family child care homes.

2014年儿童照护许可研究提供了关于儿童照护许可项目与政策的收集信息，以及涵盖美国所有50个州、哥伦比亚特区及两个美属领地（关岛和维尔京群岛）的儿童照护中心、家庭儿童照护机构和集体儿童照护机构的监管规定。有关各州和领地的许可政策，包括设施监控、许可法规的执行以及许可项目人员配置的数据，由全国监管行政协会（NARA）在2014年的NARA儿童照护许可项目与政策调查中收集。NARA于2014年9月向所有州儿童照护许可机构发送了在线调查，受访者通过互联网提交答案，至2015年1月，所有州均已回复。许可调查的数据涵盖了以下主题领域：许可机构数量、投诉调查、许可工作人员、执法行动、检查类型、互联网上的许可信息、检查频率、许可费用、许可频率、许可工作人员要求、检查与监控、许可在质量提升中的作用。本研究中使用的儿童照护中心许可规定由国家早期儿童质量保证中心根据2012年1月1日至2014年12月31日在国家儿童照护与早期教育健康与安全资源中心（NRC）网站上发布的法规编纂而成。该网站现已不再活跃，但会将用户指引至国家儿童照护许可规定数据库。许可规定数据涵盖了以下领域：许可规定、额外工作人员培训要求、许可儿童照护中心定义、儿童与工作人员比例及团体规模、工作人员角色与年龄要求、儿童监护、工作人员资格及持续培训要求、儿童护理、设施要求及工作人员招聘要求。同一网站亦用于收集涵盖上述主题的小型家庭儿童照护机构和大型/集体家庭儿童照护机构的许可规定。