Child Care Licensing Study, United States, 2006-2007

The purpose of the 2007 Child Care Licensing Study is to report four aspects of child care licensing from 2007 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia: (1) state child care licensing programs and policies, (2) child care center licensing regulations, (3) small family child care home licensing regulations, and (4) large/group family child care home licensing regulations.
To collect information on states' licensing policies, including staffing, monitoring, and enforcement of licensing regulations, the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) disseminated the 2007 NARA Child Care Licensing Program Survey to all state child care licensing agencies in July 2007. Responses were received from all states. The survey focused on the processes and policies in each state related to staffing for the licensing program, monitoring facilities, and enforcement of licensing regulations. The data 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 and
Licensing's role in quality initiatives
The child care center licensing regulations used for this study are those that were posted on the National Resources Center for Health and Safety in Child Care (NRC) Web site between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2007. The data covers 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. More information on the study is located at the National Association for Regulatory Administration Web site.