• Child Care Hub Architecture Project

    Focus Group Participant Agreement

  • Thank you for agreeing to participate in a provider focus group for the Child Care Hub Architecture Project, led by the Delaware Department of Education’s Early Childhood Excellence (ECE), in partnership with Public Consulting Group (PCG).

    Please review the information below before participating.

    Purpose of the Focus Group

    This focus group is part of a planning and readiness effort to learn from the early childhood workforce in Delaware about their experiences, needs, and challenges.

    The goal of these discussions is to gather feedback that can help inform future state planning and improvement efforts related to:

    ·       Child care operations and administration

    ·       Staffing and workforce challenges

    ·       Family access to child care

    ·       Technology and data systems

    ·       Business and financial supports

    ·       Coordination of services and resources for providers

    The information shared during the focus groups will help identify opportunities to better support child care providers and strengthen the Delaware early childhood system.

    Who Can Participate

    Participation is open to invited child care providers and early childhood professionals, including:

    Licensed child care centers
    Family child care providers
    Group family child care providers
    Early learning program administrators
    Other child care professionals or stakeholders identified by the project team
    Participants must be at least 18 years of age.

    What to Expect

    Depending on the session you select, the focus group will be conducted either in-person or virtually and are expected to last approximately 60-90 minutes.

    During the session, participants may be asked to discuss topics such as:

    ·       Day-to-day operational challenges

    ·       Hiring and retaining staff

    ·       Enrollment and serving families

    ·       Licensing and administrative processes

    ·       Training and development needs

    ·       Technology systems and reporting requirements

    ·       Financial and business challenges

    ·       Ideas for improving supports and processes for providers

    Participants are encouraged to share honest feedback and professional experiences. There are no right or wrong answers.

    Focus groups will be facilitated by PCG staff and recorded with a project team member taking notes, as well as an AI-generated transcript to support accurate note‑taking. All recordings will only be used by the PCG project team for summary and analysis purposes and will not be publicly shared.

    Incentive Eligibility

    Eligible participants may receive a $25 e-gift card for participating.

    To receive an incentive, participants will be required to:

    • Confirm they are a current child care provider or early childhood professional
    • Attend the full focus group session
    • Complete any required registration or payment forms
    • Provide accurate contact or payment information

    The e-gift card will be provided after participant eligibility requirements are verified.

    Unless otherwise stated, incentives are limited to one per participant.

    Voluntary Participation

    Participation is voluntary. You may choose not to answer any question and may leave the session at any time. However, leaving the session early may make you ineligible to receive the $25 e-gift card incentive.

    Privacy & Data Protection

    Your privacy is important and PCG will make reasonable efforts to protect participant confidentiality.

    During focus groups:

    • Audio (and/or video) from the session will be recorded and used to generate an AI‑assisted transcript.
    • Recordings and transcripts will be used only for project documentation, analysis, and reporting.
    • Your name and program will not be included in reports or shared publicly without permission.
    • Feedback will be summarized and reported in an aggregated, non‑attributed way.
    • Since focus groups involve multiple participants, confidentiality cannot be completely guaranteed. Participants are asked to respect one another’s privacy and avoid sharing comments or identifying information discussed during the session outside of the group.

    Any records collected will be stored securely and accessed only by authorized project staff. However, should an entity go through the formal data request process, some aspects of the data, including findings, recording and transcripts, and/or survey responses could have portions which would be required to be released.

    Mandated Reporting

    The PCG Project Team’s professional roles require us to report any suspicion of child or elderly abuse and/or suspicion of possible harm to self or others, and/or committed crimes to the appropriate authorities.

    Consent

    Thank you for reviewing this form. We will review this Participation Agreement prior to each focus group and will allow time for any questions prior to beginning.

    By participating in this focus group, you acknowledge and agree that:

    • I have read and understand this participation agreement,
    • I meet all the eligibility requirements listed above,
    • My session will be recorded and transcribed using AI‑assisted tools, and
    • My signature below will be deemed consent to the terms described in this agreement.

    Thank you for sharing your time and experience. Your input is valuable and will help inform future planning for Delaware’s child care system.

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