Child Care and Development Fund, Report to Congress for Fiscal Years 2002 and 2003
Child Care Bureau Research Grants: FY 2002
In FY 2002, CCB awarded $90,000 for three new Child Care Research Scholars Grants, $749,353 for three new State Data Capacity Grants, and $841,907 for three unsolicited Field Initiated Grants. These nine projects are summarized below. In addition to these new projects, CCB continued funding for grant projects begun in prior years. These included 12 Field-Initiated Research Grants, 4 Child Care Research Partnerships, 4 Child Care Research Scholar Grants, and 3 State Data Capacity Grants.
Child Care Research Scholars Grants
-
Harvard University, Graduate School of Education: "Balancing Work and Family During Children's First Three Years of Life" ($30,000). Completed in 2003, this study explored the association between maternal responsiveness, employment, and child care. Longitudinal analyses were based on data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. After controlling for family and child characteristics, results revealed mothers who worked part-time were slightly more responsive than mothers who did not work, and mothers who worked full-time were slightly less responsive than mothers who did not work. The amount and type of child care had no effect on maternal responsiveness. However, additional analyses are needed to determine whether the quality of child care affects mothers' responsiveness.
-
Rand Corporation Graduate School: "The Impact of Kindergarten Entrance Policies on the Child Care Needs of Families" ($30,000). Completed in 2003, this study developed an economic model that considers parents' decisions regarding the age to enroll their children in kindergarten. A nationally representative dataset, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, was used. The results indicated that when child care prices increase, parents want to send their children to kindergarten at a younger age to avoid the expensive child care costs. A consequence of raising the minimum age of kindergarten entrance is the potentially large child care costs that parents of children forced to enter school a year later would have to bear. The additional child care cost to parents from a movement of all December/January cutoff dates to September, which reflects the current policy trends, is estimated to be close to $147 million.
-
Baylor University, Department of Education: "Step Up to Learning with Focus-Follow-Talk: A Professional Development Training for Child Care Providers" ($30,000). Completed in 2003, this study evaluated a child care provider professional development program designed to train providers in the basic concepts of toddler language development. Results were based on data from 121 children in 22 Texas child care centers. After controlling for adult-to-child ratios, the children enrolled in the classrooms of providers who participated in the training had better language skills than children in the classrooms in which the providers had received no training. It is important to note that these positive results were found only after controlling for adult to child ratios, which suggest that in order to accurately assess the benefits of professional development training, policies surrounding differences in child care ratios must first be addressed.
State Data Capacity Grants
-
Maine Department of Human Service's Office of Child Care and Head Start "Maine Child Care Data Capacity and Research Partnership" ($249,353). During the first year of the project, Maine assessed its child care data collection capacity within State agencies and developed an inventory of all child care data, research projects, and reports. The project also conducted a statewide survey of parent experiences with child care, looking at issues such as preferences, quality, affordability, availability and work concerns.
-
Rhode Island Department of Human Services, "The Rhode Island Child Care Policy Research Project" ($250,000). Partnering with experienced researchers in the field of child care, this project conducted independent longitudinal research using reduced-form econometric modeling techniques in the first grant year to study parent choices in Rhode Island's child care assistance program. Findings showed that Rhode Island's policies, excluding other factors, contributed to an increase of subsidized children in regulated versus unregulated care.
-
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, "Wisconsin Child Care Data Sharing Project" ($250,000). This project developed a merged statewide child care provider file that includes data on all licensed and certified child care facilities, Child Care Resource & Referral, Wisconsin's child care professional career development recognition system, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, public schools, and recipients of T.E.A.C.H. scholarships. This data file provides a platform for conducting State-level policy research on parent selection of child care, supply, and demand for child care in low-income neighborhoods, and mechanisms for improving child care quality statewide.
Child Care Policy Research Grants
-
Cornell University, "Linking Economic Development and Child Care," ($254,332). This project is developing and disseminating an econometric model to examine how the child care industry affects economic development in States and local communities. A set of analytic tools was developed to assist States and localities in measuring the impact of child care in their region. Researchers also examined how the economic development framework is used to craft new strategic partnerships and innovative approaches to child care finance and administration.
-
University of Washington, Human Services Policy Center, "The Size of the U.S. Childcare Workforce: Applying and Validating Demand-Based Estimation Methods for the States," ($216,227). This project tested a new econometric model for estimating characteristics of the child care workforce in selected States, building on previous work by the University of Washington's Human Services Policy Center in collaboration with the Center for the Child Care Work Force. The project conducted a survey of available data sources at the State level on the child care workforce. It concluded that there is a substantial amount of workforce data collected by States, but its utility is diminished by variability in methodological sophistication and lack of standard definitions of major data categories. Using State-level child care demand data and federally available workforce estimates, the project validated the econometric model to estimate the size of the workforce. Findings suggest a need for more uniformity and validity of State data that will allow aggregation across States to provide a better national picture of the U.S. childcare workforce than is currently available.
-
The Urban Institute, "Essential but Often Ignored: Child Care Providers and the Subsidy System," ($371,348). This study examines the characteristics of subsidized and unsubsidized providers to explore how subsidy policies affect their experiences. In addition, it is describing the participation of faith-based organizations in the child care subsidy system and support to children's early learning and literacy in diverse settings. The project is also supported with funds from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. Findings are expected in FY 2005.