Overview of Delaware’s Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five Needs Assessment Approach
Preliminary literature review of existing health and education needs assessments and strategic recommendations for the early childhood field within the last eight years.
Field Research
Interviews and surveys with families of children aged birth through five (B-5) and EC professionals to qualitatively assess their diverse range of needs. Questions focused on uncovering gaps in current programs and services across the state.
Provider Landscape Assessment
Statewide collection and analysis of EC professional-level and program-level data to calculate and report on the current landscape of programs and services available to children B-5 and their families.
Inventory and assessment of current data systems, focusing on the State’s ability to quantitatively identify the unique number of children B-5 being served in Delaware’s EC system. Data flow and business flow diagrams map gaps in data collection.
The Office of Early Learning has produced an Executive Summary of our Needs Assessments.
For further information on each component of the Needs Assessment, please view the detailed analysis of the findings below:
- Delaware PDG B-5 Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan Literature Review – This document summarizes common themes from existing Delaware-specific early childhood health and education needs assessments, strategic plans, and recommendation reports within the last eight years.
- Delaware PDG B-5 Consolidated Needs Assessment – This document merges all quantitative analyses, findings, and recommendations into one final deliverable. This comprehensive research fact base is organized into an analysis of Delaware’s early childhood landscape, opportunities to improve the system and a vision for future strategic planning.
- Delaware PDG B-5 User Experience Needs Assessment – This document summarizes the qualitative data gathered from Delaware families and early childhood professionals and organizes their feedback into Needs and Insights, Experiences that Matter, and Shifts and Design Principles. The design of this document reflects the human-centered approach taken to understand Delawareans’ experience within early childhood care and education (ECCE) mixed delivery system. It summarizes what they eloquently and authentically shared with the PDG B-5 team as they traveled across the state to meet with families in their homes, communities, and workplaces.
- Delaware PDG B-5 Data Systems Needs Assessment – This document summarizes the technical, data systems analyses. It includes an analysis of the number of children currently served and awaiting services in the ECCE system, with particular focus on the unduplicated number of children served. Findings explore the use of Delaware’s unique child identifiers and how data currently flows through state agency systems and the business processes that support these flows.
- Delaware PDG B-5 Cost of Quality Study – This document explores one particular issue identified during the needs assessment process: the importance of providing more affordable and quality child care seats to families. This study uses financial models to understand the costs of delivering quality care to children.
- Delaware PDG B-5 Cost of Quality Executive Summary – A two-page document highlighting the Cost of Quality Study conclusions.