Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study​
Explore findings on child care supply, the early childhood workforce, and the true cost of high-quality care in greater Davidson County, Nashville, TN
Child care is essential to families, children, and communities. It enables parents to participate in the workforce, provides young children with safe and nurturing environments that promote healthy development, and strengthens families’ economic stability. Yet families across the country face serious challenges accessing and affording it, and child care programs face persistent barriers to financial sustainability and workforce retention.
To understand how these challenges play out locally, the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University conducted the Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study in partnership with United Way of Greater Nashville, Raising Readers Nashville, and the Nashville Early Education Coalition. The study draws on original data collected through the Davidson County Child Care Provider Experience Survey, fielded in Summer 2025 to all licensed child care programs in greater Davidson County, Nashville, Tennessee. Nearly half of all reachable licensed programs participated.
Browse the Research
The study examines the supply of center-based and home-based child care across the region, the size and composition of the local early childhood education workforce, and the estimated true cost of providing high-quality care for children under age 5.
Findings are presented across an executive summary and five research briefs.
Executive Summary: Davidson County, Tennessee Child Care Landscape Study
The Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study examines local child care supply, population metrics that inform demand, the local ECE workforce, operating conditions of local child care programs, and the estimated cost of providing high-quality child care in greater Nashville, Tennessee.
Brief 1: Early Education for the Next Generation – Understanding Child Care Supply
Child care access shapes whether families with young children can work and whether children receive the nurturing, structured environments that support healthy development. This brief examines center-based child care supply across greater Davidson County, Tennessee, drawing on survey data from 116 child care programs to build a more complete picture of what families can realistically access.
Brief 2: The People Behind Early Care and Education – Understanding the Early Childhood Workforce
The early childhood education workforce is central to the quality and functioning of center-based child care programs, yet directors across the country face persistent challenges recruiting and retaining educators. This brief draws on survey data from 116 child care programs to describe the size and composition of the early childhood education workforce across greater Davidson County, Tennessee.
Brief 3: Limited Providers, Limited Slots – An Analysis of Home-Based Child Care
Home-based child care represents a small but important part of the licensed child care landscape in greater Davidson County, Tennessee, serving families with varied preferences and needs. This brief draws on survey data from 14 licensed home-based programs to describe the supply and experiences of home-based child care providers across the region.
Brief 4: What High-Quality Center-Based Child Care Really Costs, and Why No One is Paying It – Insights from True-Cost Modeling
The market price of child care reflects what families can afford to pay, not what it actually costs programs to provide high-quality care with a well-compensated workforce. This brief uses a cost estimation model to examine the true cost of providing center-based child care for children under age 5 across greater Davidson County, Tennessee.
Brief 5: Estimating the True Cost of High-Quality Home-Based Care – Insights from True-Cost Modeling
Home-based child care plays a small but vital role in greater Davidson County, Tennessee, offering families flexibility, affordability, and culturally aligned care, particularly for infants and toddlers. This brief uses a cost estimation model to examine the true cost of providing high-quality home-based child care in the region, where providers often serve simultaneously as educator, owner, and director.
Meet One of the Study Researchers
Sierra Rowe, Senior Research Associate
"Our partners at United Way of Greater Nashville, Raising Readers Nashville, and Nashville Early Education Coalition understood their community’s child care challenges firsthand, but lacked the comprehensive, locally-tailored data needed to tell the full story. As a Senior Research Associate on our Research & Evaluation team, I worked alongside our parters to combine their local expertise with the Center's capacity to conduct original survey-based research.
The result, captured in our five-part brief series, is a detailed picture of Nashville’s child care landscape that our partners are now using to inform expansion planning, resource allocation, and policy and funding advocacy. I am excited to partner with more communities to conduct this kind of original, locally-tailored research that drives real change."
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