Alison Hooper, a Ph.D. student in HDFS, has received the OPRE Child Care Research Scholars Dissertation Grant which will provide her with two years of funding to complete her dissertation research. Dr. Rena Hallam will serve as her faculty mentor for the grant. Alison will be performing a mixed method research study on home-based child care in both nationally and in Delaware. As many as 7 million young children regularly attend home-based child care across the United States, with each care provider having varying levels of state support and regulation. Alison plans to study the practices and beliefs of home-based child care providers to help states better tailor programs and supports to meet the needs of providers and improve the quality of child care. This grant is awarded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation which is a part of the  Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services’ division. The project will build on existing research within the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood related to family child care quality, including the federally funded Stars Plus Family Child Care Project. This UDaily article discusses Alison’s grant further.