10,000 randomly selected households in Vermont are receiving an invitation to participate in a survey about child care and early learning this fall. If they have children under six years old, we want to know about their experiences, preferences and challenges related to child care in Vermont.
This is the Demand for Child Care Study for Vermont which is being conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago on behalf of a coalition of public and private partners in Vermont. The effort is coordinated by Building Bright Futures (the State Advisory Council for Early Childhood). The study is supported with resources from the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant, the Child Development Division in DCF and the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children
We’re grateful to the Scott Administration and the State Legislature which approved some funding to support the study from this year’s budget.
What we all want to understand better is what early care and learning arrangements Vermont families make for children birth to five, what they think about what is available to them, and how child care influences some other decisions they make.
Results of the study will be available early in 2019. What we learn will be interesting to legislators, policy makers, early care and learning providers, and community members as we work collectively to build an early care and learning system in Vermont that works for Vermont families and gets children off to a great start.
If you’ve received an invitation in the mail, we urge you to participate in the study. If you are a child care provider – check in with families in your program who may have received an invitation and encourage them to participate.
Participants can fill out the survey on-line or can call a toll-free number to complete the survey in a phone interview. Households who get the survey will also receive a few reminders in the mail to keep it on their radar. One third of the households that received invitations will also get a visit from a NORC representative who can record their response in person if they have children under 6. It’s important that we hear from a lot of Vermont families, so we get a balanced picture.
If you have questions about this work, please contact Building Bright Futures (info@buildingbrightfutures.org).