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child population over time; and potential child eligibility for the Child Care and Parent Services (CAPS) subsidy program, Georgia’s Pre-K program, Early Head Start, and Head Start. The tool brings in supply-side data by using Lead Agency administrative data to include: all child care providers by state and county; provider facility type, quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) rating, and public program participation; and estimates total child enrollment with total capacity. Not only does the tool allow for specific investigation into demand use cases and supply use cases, but it also brings supply and demand together to investigate and identify where potential service gaps may or may not exist. Additionally, the tool has been developed to offer alternative data views to provide the perspectives of service gaps by family language and the degree to which a geographic area may be underserved. These analyses are used to define a shortage of supply and identify where a shortage in supply may exist for infant and toddler programs in the state. This work includes identifying different areas where there are general gaps in access to infant and toddler child care as well as gaps in access to the state’s ECE (early care and education) programs that support infant and toddler child care. The analysis can then be used to make informed decisions about how to direct additional resources. In addition to the internal teams, the Lead Agency works with research partners from the Urban Institute, Child Trends, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and others to conduct formal research studies.

The Office of Child Care has not established criteria for measuring a shortage of supply in different regions, or any other geographic unit, and if there are specific thresholds that identify when a shortage exists. So, there is not a generally accepted definition or criteria for a state to use. Therefore, in order to know if a shortage of programs exists regionally, a state must gather evidence to support the establishment of criteria to measure supply and demand throughout the state in order to determine if a regional shortage in Georgia. Currently, the Lead Agency is evaluating available data in order to define the criteria needed to measure supply and demand and apply appropriate thresholds for identifying a defined gap. This work will enable the Lead Agency to determine if regional supply shortages exist in Georgia. The Lead Agency believes that a data-driven approach to evaluating supply and demand is necessary for developing the most impactful strategies and policies for addressing shortages of supply where they exist.

In the absence of an established quantitative method, the Lead Agency is able to make generalized observations related to supply and demand using the data sources and efforts described. From a state-level perspective, there are potential supply shortages in the northeast and southwest administrative regions. The statewide service level for all ages is 16.5%. In contrast, the service level for all ages is 14.5% in the northeast region and 15.4% in the southwest region.

The Lead Agency is currently working to better understand and interpret the supply data and collect more demand data to establish criteria by which to measure supply and demand at the statewide level and various local levels where greater variation may exist and define a quantitative method for identifying potential gaps throughout the state. Doing so, would assist the lead agency to