Studying Child Care Subsidies with Secondary Data Sources

This brief highlights advantages, disadvantages, and potential research uses of four publicly available datasets in the study of child care subsidies: Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort, Survey of Income and Program Participation, and the National Household Education Survey. The authors caution researchers to be aware of the multiple funding sources and types of support that could be incorporated in survey measures of child care subsidies.