National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Public-Use Files, [United States], 2019

The 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (2019 NSECE) is a set of four nationally-representative integrated surveys conducted in 2019 of 1) households with children under age 13, 2) home-based early care and education (ECE) providers, 3) center-based ECE providers, and 4) the center-based ECE provider workforce. Together these four surveys characterize the supply of and demand for ECE in the United States and create a better understanding of how well families' needs and preferences coordinate with providers' offerings and constraints. The NSECE surveys make particular effort to measure the experiences of low-income families, as these families are the focus of a significant component of ECE and school-age public policy.
The NSECE was first conducted in 2012. Before that effort, there had been a 20-year long absence of nationally representative data on the use and availability of ECE in the United States. The NSECE was conducted again in 2019 to update the information from 2012 and shed light on how the ECE and school-age care landscape changed from 2012 to 2019. The 2019 NSECE followed a similar design as the 2012 survey, including surveying households with children under age 13, home-based providers, center-based providers, and staff working in center-based classrooms.
The 2019 NSECE was funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The project team was led by NORC at the University of Chicago, with partners Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and Child Trends, as well as other collaborating individuals and organizations.
<strong>Restricted-Use Data Files</strong>
The 2019 NSECE quick tabulation and public-use files are currently available via this site. The Level 1 restricted-use files that supplement the public-use data are also available through ICPSR (see National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) Level 1 Restricted-Use Files, [United States], 2019 (ICPSR 38445)).
Level 2 and Level 3 restricted-use files are available via the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). For more information, please see the instructions for NSECE Levels 2/3 Restricted-Use Data.
For additional information about this study, please see:

NSECE project page on the OPRE website
NSECE study page on NORC's website
NSECE Research Methods Blog
For quick links to the PDF manuals (for the Quick Tabulation Files) and user's guides (for the Public-Use Files), please visit the Data Training Resources from the NSECE page. In addition, users can select "Documentation Only" from the Download tab on this study homepage to download all NSECE documentation in one zip file. Researchers interested in applying for the Restricted-Use Data Files are encouraged to read the user's guides before completing their application.