Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 16
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
3
About the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study
The United Way of Greater Nashville engaged the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at
Vanderbilt University (Policy Impact Center) to conduct the Davidson County Child Care
Landscape Study to examine child care supply, population metrics that inform demand, and
the estimated cost of providing high-quality child care in Davidson County. The Davidson
County Child Care Landscape Study consists of three phases.
•
•
•
Phase 1 focused on using state- and national-level publicly available data to
understand the population and demographic characteristics of Davidson County that
inform local child care demand and current supply. Though these data provided a
foundational overview of the local child care landscape, they also revealed
limitations in what could be understood without targeted data collection to provide
more detailed, local data. A summary of key findings was released in March 2024.a
Phase 2 consists of an in-depth child care supply analysis based on an original child
care provider survey. The Policy Impact Center developed and fielded the 2025
Davidson County Child Care Provider Experience Survey (Child Care Provider
Survey) between June and August 2025 to all licensed child care programs in the
greater Davidson County area. We discuss findings from this phase in Briefs 1, 2,
and 3 of this five-part series.
Phase 3 uses a cost estimation model (CEM) informed by Tennessee- and Davidson
County-specific data and input from local child care experts and community
partners to estimate the cost of providing high-quality child care in Davidson
County. We discuss findings from this phase in Briefs 4 and 5 of this five-part
series.
This Methods Appendix provides details on the data sources, measures, and analytic
approach for Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study.
Results from Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the study are presented in a five-part brief series.
Results from the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study will inform child care
expansion planning, resource allocation decisions, and policy and funding advocacy.
Key Terms
Local Definitions and Policy Context
Several key terms used throughout this study reflect state- and local-specific definitions and
policy structures that shape how child care is provided and overseen in greater Davidson County:
•
Greater Davidson County: The study region that includes 34 Zip Code Tabulation
Areas (ZCTAs) that are entirely or partially within the border of Davidson County,
a The Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Phase 1 Executive Summary can be found here:
RaisingReadersNashville_ChildCare_Study_Phase1Summary_0324.pdf
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2025
www.pn3policy.org
