On January 12th, 2023, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) released a brief regarding childcare and early education (CCEE). They describe how the use of geographic maps could help lead to understanding local and community context regarding support when making decisions around improving access to the Child Care and Development Block Grants (CCDBG). The brief summarizes effective ways that leaders can use maps to help understand policy effects, allocate resources, build supplies, and support families as well as offering insight on how to engage partners in the decision-making process. By focusing on childcare desert mapping in distinct areas, they show how CCEE leaders can use these tools to assess, analyze, and improve CCDBG access. The publication also describes technical aspects for map development to determine which data to use when decision-making, the best fits for analytic approaches, and how to best display contents to support decisions. The brief also offers several resources on developing and designing CCEE contextual maps and applying analysis to CCEE contexts.
By Chris Bennett, Policy Intern
