Descriptive statistics, including Person product-moment correlation, canonical correlation, frequency tables, and scatterplots, were utilized to examine the relationship between early childhood education and care (ECEC) quality indicators found in state child care regulations and the number of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accredited programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. State child care regulation quality indicators included maximum staff-to-child ratio, maximum group size, and minimum preservice teacher education qualifications. With currently no published empirical research that assists accreditation facilitation projects in explaining to funders the variations in time or levels of support (i.e., funding, human capital, materials and equipment, etc.) needed to achieve accreditation from program to program and from state to state, this research focused on one possible explanation for these variations. The data analysis provided the first empirical evidence that a relationship exists between the stringency of quality indicators in state child care regulations and the number of programs involved in the NAEYC accreditation process. Findings contribute to the ongoing dialogue regarding the optimum role of state child care regulations, as well as help explain variations in the number of NAEYC accredited programs in each state. |