Understanding Families’ Access to Nontraditional Hour Child Care and Early Education

In this piece, we highlight reports with national data on families with young children who need nontraditional-hour care, as well as the characteristics of providers who offer nontraditional-hour care. It is important for CCEE leaders to understand the characteristics of families who work nontraditional hours, the types of care used at nontraditional hours, and the characteristics of providers who offer nontraditional-hour care. CCEE leaders can use this information to help increase the number of providers who offer nontraditional-hour care that families need and help the providers offer CCEE that supports children’s development.  

The information in this publication was drawn from work by the Urban Institute on nontraditional-hour care , as well as work by NORC, and the Education Development Center. 

• About 40 percent of young children in the U.S. use child care and early education (CCEE) at nontraditional hours, which include early morning, evening, overnight, and weekend hours.  

• Working families who earn lower incomes, who are Black or Hispanic, or who have lower education levels were the most likely to need nontraditional-hour care. 

• It can be hard to find care during nontraditional hours. Family child care homes were more likely than centers to offer care at nontraditional hours.  

Figure 2. Share of children younger than six in CCEE, by care arrangement and whether they used nontraditional- care or traditional-hour care only 

Adapted from Lou, C., Schilder, D., Wagner, L. (2022a). What types of child care do families use during nontraditional hours? Urban Institute.  

While these national data provide a preliminary understanding of the needs of families and the supply of CCEE during nontraditional hours, research suggests that there is substantial variation across states in the number and characteristics of families who work nontraditional hours. An analysis of data from the American Community Survey 2015 — 2019 indicates that 42 percent or more of young children in Alabama, Louisiana, Nevada, and Mississippi are living with working families with potential nontraditional-hour child care needs, compared with only about 25 percent of young children in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This underscores the need for state CCEE leaders to understand the needs of working families and providers offering nontraditional-hour care to help them develop strategies to improve equitable access to nontraditional-hour care that supports children’s development. State CCEE policymakers are planning a range of actions, such as using contracts to increase the supply of care operating during nontraditional hours and changing the payment rates for nontraditional-hour care.  

CCEEPRA Research Translation (2023). Understanding families’ access to nontraditional-hour child care and early education. OPRE Report #2023-219. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.