DECAL commissioned researchers from the University of Georgia and Georgia State University to revisit their previous study of the importance of the early care and education industry to Georgia’s economy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest report examines recovery efforts coming out of the pandemic in 2021. The analyses in this report show that state and federal financial funding, as well as policy decisions by DECAL, were essential to supporting Georgia’s ECE industry. This phase of the study offers a detailed snapshot of the industry’s economic reach during a pivotal year and serves as a foundation for future reports.

2021 Economic Impact Study Executive Summary

2021 Economic Impact Study Report

Supporting Georgia's Comprehensive Review of Quality Rated

In 2023 DECAL conducted a comprehensive review of Quality Rated (QR) and contracted with the Urban Institute to design a research study, collect and analyze data, make recommendations for the future, and share its findings. Through focus groups, surveys and data walks, the Urban Institute gathered input from 100 Georgia families, 900 Child Care Learning Center (CCLC) leaders, 300 Family Child Care Learning Home (FCCLH) operators, 50 technical assistance and QR staff, other stakeholders, and a panel of national QRIS experts. This is the final, complete report on the comprehensive review, and it includes written descriptions of the Urban Institute’s findings, recommendations, and data analyses.

Full Report

Summary

Supporting Child Well-Being in Georgia's Quality Rated System

This brief is part of a series of reports related to the 2023 comprehensive review of Quality Rated (QR) conducted for DECAL by the Urban Institute and other research partners. It summarizes the perspectives of Quality Rated child care providers who responded to a survey asking about the ways they support child health and well-being that are not currently recognized by the QR system.

Parent Perspectives on Quality in Child Care and Early Education in Georgia

This brief is part of a series of reports related to the 2023 comprehensive review of Quality Rated (QR) conducted for DECAL by the Urban Institute and other research partners. It summarizes the perspectives of parents who participated in focus groups about the most important features of quality in early care and education (ECE), experiences with the QR system, and their thoughts on how a future QR system could be improved.

Evaluation of DECAL Scholars Program

In 2021 DECAL contracted with Child Trends to evaluate the DECAL Scholars program, established in 2002 to minimize barriers to recruitment and retention of the early childhood workforce. This report describes Child Trends’ evaluation with respect to three research questions: 1) Who has applied for and received benefits? How have providers accessed benefits? 2) Is participation in DECAL Scholars linked to intended outcomes for providers? 3) How do applicants, recipients, and stakeholders perceive the Scholars program? What areas do they identify for improvement?

CAPS Student Parent 2Gen Pilot Theory of Change

DECAL has contracted with Child Trends to evaluate the CAPS Student Parent 2Gen Pilot, which is being conducted at three technical college sites through 2025. This brief summarizes the Theory of Change behind the pilot and Child Trends’ plans for evaluating the pilot.

Georgia Child Care Market Rate Analysis (2024)

DECAL contracted with Care Solutions, Inc. to conduct a market rate analysis using state administrative data. The purpose of this analysis is to determine local child care market rates. The survey is conducted, in part, to meet the state's Child Care and Development Fund requirements related to the Child Care and Development Block Grant Reauthorization of 2014. The final report and appendices are posted here.

DECAL conducted analysis of data collected through STABLE 4ward quarterly reports between 2022 and 2024 to advance the agency’s understanding of the costs of child care. In doing so, DECAL has developed a series of reports detailing the costs related to child care operations throughout the state.

Understanding the Need for Nontraditional-Hour Child Care in Georgia

DECAL partnered with the Urban Institute to further examine a previous finding that some parents needed child care to be open longer hours and beyond traditional hours. In this brief, the Urban Institute presents what parents say is important to them when they seek nonparental care for their children during nontraditional hours. They describe the numbers of parents working nontraditional hours in Georgia, where they live in the state, and what kinds of jobs they work. Finally, they provide recommendations on how Georgia could better support parents with these needs.

Evaluation of Georgia’s Language and Literacy Endorsement, 2022-23

In 2020, Child Trends partnered with DECAL to evaluate the pilot of a new Language and Literacy Endorsement for child care programs participating in Quality Rated, Georgia’s quality rating and improvement system. In 2022, DECAL offered the Endorsement to an expanded cohort of center-based programs and launched a pilot Endorsement with licensed family child care homes. This report summarizes 2022-23 evaluation findings and provides recommendations to inform future implementation of the Endorsement. Overall, family child care providers, center-based teachers, and center administrators found the Endorsement to be a positive and worthwhile experience, and center-based teachers and family child care providers reported that they gained practical skills and knowledge to apply to their classrooms and programs.

Examining Quality in Georgia’s Child Care Centers Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Child Trends partnered with DECAL to examine potential effects of the pandemic on classroom quality as captured in classroom observations for Quality Rated, Georgia’s quality rating and improvement system. DECAL paused in-person classroom observations in March 2020 and resumed them in July 2022. This brief summarizes comparisons of ECERS-3 and ITERS-3 observations conducted as part of the rating process before and after the COVID-19 pause. It includes only classrooms serving infants/toddlers and children ages 3 to 5 in center-based programs taking part in Quality Rated. Average overall scores on both rating scales decreased slightly following the COVID-19 shutdown when comparing 2018-2019 to 2022 data.

Supporting Georgia’s Early Care and Learning System with CRRSA and ARP Funding: Perspectives from Stakeholders and Families

In 2021, DECAL contracted with the Urban Institute to conduct stakeholder engagement with Georgia families, child care providers, the early care and education (ECE) workforce, DECAL staff, and other stakeholder groups to assess the support needed for Georgia’s ECE system. More than 7,000 stakeholders across rural and urban Georgia communities shared their experiences, concerns, and recommendations to strengthen early care and learning in Georgia. This report reflects these perspectives through nine recommendations for how DECAL could allocate its federal pandemic relief funds to support Georgia’s early care and learning system.

The executive summary provides an overview of these nine recommendations and strategies, while the full report details how the team gathered the information, who participated, and what was found.

Full Report

Executive Summary

The Georgia’s Pre-K Longitudinal Study followed a statewide sample of 1,169 children from Pre-K to fourth grade. The six-year study, covering 2013–2019 and conducted by researchers at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examined the children’s learning outcomes through standardized assessments and the quality of their school experiences over time through classroom observations. The study also included a subsample of English-Spanish dual language learners and a comparison sample of children who did not attend any Pre-K. Reports and summaries from the studies are found here.

Children in the Pre-K longitudinal sample had better language, literacy, and executive function skills in fourth grade than children in the comparison sample who did not attend any Pre-K. Overall, results suggest that a key strength of Georgia’s Pre-K Program is building foundational literacy skills for reading.

Longitudinal Study of Georgia’s Pre-K Program: Pre-K through 4^th Grade Report

Executive Summary

DECAL has contracted with Child Trends to assist with its Quality Rated validation efforts, including ongoing analysis of Quality Rated administrative data and conducting a study of the effectiveness of Quality Rated. Findings related to these efforts will be posted here.

Through a collaboration between researchers at the Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, DECAL has commissioned three studies on the economic impact of the child care industry in Georgia. Findings from the first study were released in 2008 and from the second study in 2016. The third study is ongoing, and reports will be released in phases; initial findings were released in 2024, and the newest findings were released in 2025.

Researchers at Child Trends compared third-grade scores on the Georgia Milestones End-of-Grade (EOG) tests for children who had and had not taken part in Georgia's Pre-K. The study utilized data from GA*AWARDS, the state’s Pre-K through workforce (P20W) longitudinal data system.

In 2021, Quality Rated implemented the Temporary Alternate Rating Option (TARO), which enabled child care programs to earn a rating through a virtual rating process during the COVID-19 pandemic. DECAL partnered with Child Trends to learn more about TARO through surveys, interviews, and analyses of administrative data. Findings and considerations are summarized in a set of reports.

Awarding Child Care Education Scholarship Supplements (ACCESS) is a temporary initiative to mitigate the negative financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families who receive Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) scholarships by paying child care providers their full published rate from May 2021 through at least October 2023. Beginning in December of 2021, DECAL partnered with Child Trends to administer an online survey to families who receive CAPS scholarships to understand their awareness of ACCESS and how the decrease in child care costs had affected their family’s finances. This report provides a summary of the findings from the survey. Families reported an overall high awareness of ACCESS and a decrease in child care costs and improvement in their finances as a result of ACCESS.

Georgia’s Pilot Language and Literacy Endorsement (the Endorsement) was created to recognize and promote high-quality language and literacy practices by providing professional development opportunities, materials, and financial stipends to child care providers. The pilot consisted of eleven child care centers throughout Georgia. In 2020, DECAL partnered with Child Trends to evaluate the pilot Endorsement process to understand the experiences of participating programs. Child Trends collected the experiences of programs through two rounds of semi-structured interviews with an administrator from each program and a series of online surveys of teachers. This report outlines administrators’ and teachers’ reasons for participating in the Endorsement and the extent to which the programs were able to benefit from their involvement. Overall, teachers and administrators found the Endorsement to be a positive and beneficial experience. This report also provides a series of considerations for improving the Endorsement and expanding it to reach more programs, teachers, and children across Georgia.

Utilizing funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, DECAL offered Short Term Assistance for Licensed Entities (STABLE) grants to support child care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Licensed child care providers were eligible to begin applying for Round 1 of these grants on April 30, 2020. In July 2020, DECAL Collaborated with researchers from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government to conduct a survey of licensed child care providers regarding STABLE funds and their perception of DECAL’s administration of the grants. This report details those findings.

Lifting Infants and Toddlers Through Language-rich Environments (LITTLE) grants, which began in 2017, are designed to support language and literacy instruction in high-quality infant and toddler classrooms throughout Georgia by providing on-site coaching, professional learning opportunities, and materials. As a first step in evaluating the LITTLE grants, researchers from Child Trends analyzed data collected by DECAL during the first two years of the grants. This report provides a summary of some demographic characteristics of LITTLE grant participants and examines changes in classroom practices and language environment over time for the first two years of the program.

Drawing on data collected as part of Georgia’s Quality Rated Validation Study, researchers from Child Trends investigated the extent to which work climate and teacher characteristics were interrelated and associated with classroom quality. This brief details the results from addressing the following research questions in center-based child care classrooms for preschoolers and toddlers: How are various aspects of the work climate and teacher characteristics related to one another? How are work climate and teacher characteristics related to observed teacher-child interactions?

In 2018, Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) contracted with the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government (Institute of Government) to study lottery-funded Georgia’s Pre-K waitlist. The study comprised two parts: (1) a series of focus groups with Georgia public and private Pre-K directors to better understand their perspectives on Georgia’s Pre-K enrollment in local communities and (2) a survey of parents and caregivers of children currently on Georgia’s Pre-K Program waiting list.

Researchers at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have published three reports from their study of the quality of early care and education across Georgia. The first report focuses on quality in child care centers in infant toddler and preschool (non Georgia’s Pre-K) classrooms. The second report focuses on quality in Georgia’s Pre-K classrooms. The third report focuses on quality in family day care homes. All three reports are available here.