7.1 Quality Activities Needs Assessment

7.1.1 Needs assessment process and findings a. Describe the Lead Agency needs assessment process for expending CCDF funds on activities to improve the quality of child care, including the frequency of assessment, how a diverse range of parents and providers were consulted, and how their views are incorporated: From 2019-2023, various needs assessments were conducted through the Preschool Development Grant. These included: Statewide B-5 Systems Needs Assessment, Statewide Early Childhood Needs Assessment, and Statewide Early Childhood Systems Needs Assessment. Methods and activities used included parent and family surveys, family focus groups, and Family Resource Center surveys and interviews. Primary data was pulled from focus groups with families with young children, a survey of parents, a survey of ECCE workforce members, a survey of kindergarten teachers, a survey of the state’s Family Centered Early Supports and Services (early intervention) workforce, and a survey of staff at children’s programs across the state’s community mental health centers. These activities helped us to assess the needs in various communities and use the data to inform how to direct quality funds. For more detailed information on the outcomes of these assessments and the recommendations for incorporating the findings: https://chhs.unh.edu/early-childhood/preschool-development-grant/grant-activities b. Describe the findings of the assessment, including any findings related to needs of different populations and types of providers, and if any overarching goals for quality improvement were identified: From the data provided by the results of these focus groups and surveys, we identified a need in improving our data system coordination and integration, better communication of resources to families with young children, and a need for training opportunities in the area of early childhood mental health, and a push for efforts to address the early childhood staffing crisis. We learned that we need to address the challenges in our QRIS while simultaneously working to improve the quality of child care spaces. We were then able to designate quality funding toward various pilots, contracts, and grants designed to address these findings including the continued build-out of our data system NHCIS, Workforce Recruitment and Retention projects, a revision of our Child Care Scholarship marketing efforts, continued build-out of our revised QRIS, evaluation and validation of our QRIS, etc. Many of these quality projects are ongoing.