ACF OPRE: National Study of Child Care of Low-Income Families

Introduction

In the mid-1990s low-income women entered the workforce in record numbers. For low-income families, as with all families, reliable and affordable child care may be critically important to parents’ ability to obtain a job and hold onto it. The welfare reform legislation enacted in 1996 brought with it increased investment in child care, to serve the needs of families leaving the welfare rolls and other low-income families many of whom may never have received cash assistance.

The National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families, conducted for the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was a ten-year effort in 17 states and 25 communities to provide information on the response of states and communities to the child care needs of low-income families, on the employment and child care choices these families made, and on the factors that influenced those choices. In addition, the study focused on the family child care1 arrangements of low-income families and the experiences of children in this type of care. The study was conducted by Abt Associates Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

Overview of the National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families

Study Objectives and Design

The study was designed to examine how states and communities formulate and implement policies and programs to meet the child care needs of families moving from welfare to work, and other low-income parents; how these policies change over time; and how these policies, as well as other factors, affect the type, amount, and cost of care in communities. In addition, the study investigated the factors that shape the child care decisions of low-income families, and the role that child care subsidies play in those decisions. Finally, the study examined, in depth and over a period of two and one-half years, a group of families that use various kinds of family child care, and their child care providers. The goal was to develop a better understanding of the family child care environment, and the extent to which the care provided in that environment meets parents’ needs for care that supports their work-related needs and meets children’s needs for a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment.

Six specific objectives were identified for the study, including:

To develop an understanding of state child care and welfare policies and how these are implemented at the community level.
To develop an understanding of how other community-level factors (e.g., the community poverty rate, labor market, and the nature and scope of institutions related to child care) affect the way that communities are organized to help low-income families address work and child care needs.
To examine the effects of child care and welfare policies and community-level factors on the demand for and the supply of child care, and on the types of child care arrangements that low-income parents make.
To examine changes in policies and programs over time and the effects of these changes.
To examine and model the child care decisions of low-income families and the role of child care subsidies in decision-making.
To conduct an in-depth examination of family child care used by low-income families, including the role of family child care in helping poor families manage the competing demands of work and child care, and children’s experiences in the care environment.

To address these objectives the study team collected a variety of information. This state and community substudy draws from administrative records, policy manuals, and key informant interviews from the 17 states and 25 communities, conducted in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. It describes subsidy use and expenditure information between 1997 and 2001, and subsidy policies and their administration from 1999 to 2002.2

For the community substudy, we gathered information on factors that influence parents’ opinions about child care, the stability and continuity of child care, the child care choices parents make, and how these choices affect their ability to find and retain a job, or participate in educational or training programs. For this substudy, data were collected in 1999 through a one-time survey of low-income parents in 25 communities.

In addition, for the family child care substudy we collected more-detailed information on families that use family child care, their providers, and the experience of children in family child care. This family child care substudy involved multiple data collection efforts over a two and one-half year period, to allow us to track changes in parental employment, subsidy status, and child care arrangements over time.

The Study Sample

Data for the study were collected at three levels, with nested samples of communities within states and families and providers within communities. The first level was a sample of 17 states containing 25 counties or rural county groupings that were selected from a national sampling frame to approximate a representative sample of counties with child poverty rates above 14 percent. At the family level, the study included several samples: a random sample of 2,500 low-income families with working parents (with incomes under 200 percent of Federal poverty guidelines) and at least one child under age 13 for whom they use non-parental child care in the 25 communities (100 per community); a sample of 650 low-income parents who were receiving, or were eligible for, child care subsidies, and who were using family child care at the start of the study; and a sample of the 650 family child care providers linked to these 650 families.

Selection of States and Communities

The primary focus of the state and community-level analyses was an examination of how Federal and state policies and practices are implemented at the local level. Therefore, rather than first selecting a sample of states and then selecting a sample of communities within those states, we allowed the selection of states to be determined by the sample of communities included in the study.

For the National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families, we used the county as our definition of a community. An advantage of using counties is the availability of benchmark data at the county level from the National Child Care Survey (NCCS) and the Profiles of Child Care Settings (PCCS) studies conducted in 1990 in a nationally representative sample of counties.

Our goal in the selection of counties was to select a sample that, in a broad sense, would be representative of where low-income children live. Starting with the NCCS/PCCS sample of 100 counties or county groupings, we identified 80 counties or county groupings with a 1993 poverty rate for children greater than 14 percent. When properly weighted, these 80 counties or county groupings represent more than 90 percent of poor children in the United States in 1990. Our sample of 25 communities was selected to be a representative sample of these 80 counties or county groupings.

Our sample of 25 counties or county groupings resulted in a sample of 17 states. The sample of counties and states is shown in Exhibit I-1.

Study Reports

Two reports present findings from the State and Community Substudy, which is primarily concerned with examining the ongoing changes in state and community child care and welfare systems associated with the implementation of the 1996 welfare reform legislation. One report, available in 2000, described the policies and their implementation as of 1999. This final report for the state and community substudy draws from administrative records, policy manuals, and key informant interviews from the 17 states and 25 communities, conducted in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. It describes subsidy use and expenditure information between 1997 and 2001, and subsidy policies and their administration from 1999 to 2002.

Other reports from the National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families include: (1) a report detailing the findings from the Community Survey, and (2) two reports that present findings from the In-Depth Study of Family Child Care.

Exhibit I-1: SELECTED STATES AND COMMUNITIES
State	Communities (Counties or County Groupings)
Alabama	Mobile
California	Los Angeles*
	Orange
	Riverside
Illinois	Cook
Indiana	Madison
Louisiana	Oachita
Massachusetts	Franklin*
Michigan	Wayne
Minnesota	Hennepin
Minnesota	Itasca/Koochiching/Pennington
New Jersey	Union
New Mexico	Dona Ana
New Mexico	Luna/Grant/Hidalgo
New York	Orange
North Carolina	Mecklenberg
	Alamance
	Johnston
Ohio	Hamilton*
Tennessee	Shelby
	Hardeman/Fayette/Lake/Lauderdale
	Marshall/Coffee/Bedford
Texas	Harris*
Virginia	Arlington
Washington	King*

* Included in the in-depth study of family child care.

1 In this study, family child care is defined as care by an adult, related to the child or unrelated, in that adult’s own home and outside the child’s own home. (back)

2 The reason for the dates of the substudy’s data collection is as follows. The first data collection occurred in 1999, at which point it was possible for states to report back to 1997 concerning subsidy use and expenditure data. The last date that data were collected from states was in early 2003; at that time it was possible to collect complete subsidy use data for 2002, but final expenditure data was available through 2001 only. The earliest key informant and policy data were from 1999—when data collection for the study began—and the latest were for late 2002/early 2003. (back)

Table of Contents | Previous | Next