Introduction
Many families face considerable barriers to accessing child care and early education (CCEE) that is affordable and meets their families’ needs. For example, families with low incomes face challenges to accessing affordable, high-quality care.i These challenges are heightened for Black, Latino, and Indigenous American families who are disproportionately more likely to work in jobs with low wages and limited flexibility.ii Likewise, families for whom English is not their primary language,iii families living in rural areas, families with infants and toddlers, those who work non-standard hours, and families with a child with disabilitiesiv each face their own unique set of barriers to accessing care that fits their needs.
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to identify actionable steps that state and territory child care administrators, local CCEE leaders, and researchers can take to advance measurement of equitable CCEE access. These steps are based in: 1) the Access Guidebook’s definition of access which centers families’ child care needs and preferences; 2) a published literature review on ECE access with literature prior to 2019; 3) literature on ECE access published since 2019; and 4) a convening of state agency staff, researchers, and policy experts in four states who discussed their current measures of CCEE access.
Key Findings and Highlights
The pandemic further exacerbated inequities in CCEE access and created an urgency for states to better understand shifts in the supply and demand for care as they targeted funds during stabilization efforts. The research on access to CCEE during the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the following considerations when measuring CCEE access:
1. Fluctuations in the supply and demand of care during the pandemic were interconnected, reinforcing the need to understand how fluctuations in demand and supply influence each other. During the pandemic, many parents of young children, especially working mothers, left the workforce. These departures were due to loss of employment, changes to their employment, disruptions to their child care arrangements, or a combination of these factors.v,vi As a result of, or in addition to, parents of young children leaving the labor force, CCEE enrollment declined substantially during the pandemic.vii,viii
2. Families’ needs and preferences are not static. Measurement approaches should consider families’ shifting priorities that reflect immediate concerns and/or opportunities. A few state and national surveys of parents showed a shift in parent preferences for care type during the pandemic. For some families, this included a shift to using home-based child care given the smaller group sizes and health and safety and illness prevention concerns, or using family, friend, or neighbor care (FFN).ix,x,xi Several parents also reported they would prefer to stay home to care for their child throughout the pandemic, if finances were not a concern to their household.xii
Methods
This paper is informed by Thomson and colleague’s (2020) review of the CCEE access literature from 2013-2018 and a review of the literature on CCEE access published from 2019-2022. Our goal was to identify any new information on CCEE access or new measures of access following the 2014 Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)1 reauthorization, which emphasized equal access to care, and the 2018 increase in federal CCDF funding to help states and territories address reauthorization requirements.xiii Building on a previous literature review (Thomson et al., 2020),2 we searched for literature published in 2019 that examined dimensions of access. We also examined literature related to CCEE access conducted between 2020-2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key search terms3 that were used by Thomson et al. (2020) were used to identify state and national reports as well as U.S.-based research published in peer-reviewed journals. The study team identified twenty-six reports that address CCEE access published in 2019, including six national reports and 20 state and local reports. Additionally, 34 journal articles and reports based on survey and interview data collected from families during the pandemic (2020-2022) were included. The literature from these sources was used to identify what we currently know about measuring CCEE access and to identify current gaps.
In addition to the literature synthesis, this paper was informed by a convening of state agency staff, researchers, and policy experts in four states—California, Florida, Minnesota, and South Carolina—who were selected to participate based on recent approaches they’ve used to measure CCEE access. During two 90-minute sessions in October of 2022, the attendees shared their current approaches to considering families’ needs and preferences when measuring access to CCEE, how their states are trying to center equity in examining access, and current challenges to measuring access. The convening further informed current gaps in measuring CCEE access as well as potential strategies for better addressing equity and families’ preferences and needs when measuring CCEE access.
Recommendations
Advancing measurement of CCEE access is a complex and iterative process. States and their research partners, however, are developing innovative approaches to measure access. Looking across the steps to advance measurement presented above, there are three primary recommendations for supporting more accurate measures of access—to ensure that families have equitable access to CCEE, particularly families who have faced barriers.
1) Examine multiple dimensions of access. Looking at families’ experiences from different angles is key to understanding families’ experiences accessing CCEE. This includes:
Information about CCEE options families have,
Availability of CCEE providers who accept child care subsidies
Availability of CCEE options close to families’ homes or places of work,
Price of care,
Availability of child care assistance or no-cost programs (e.g., Head Start, public pre-K),
Availability of highly rated CCEE options,
Availability of CCEE programs that serve children with disabilities,
Availability of CCEE programs with non-traditional hours, and
Presence of other program characteristics that help meet families’ needs.
As described above, most access analyses thus far have focused on the availability and affordability of care for families. Fewer analyses have included indicators of the supports child development and meets parents’ needs dimensions. Most access analyses thus far have also looked at dimensions of access one at a time rather than simultaneously. Further research and more comprehensive tools such as access composite scores are needed to examine multiple dimensions of access to better understand families’ experiences.
2) Consider family characteristics and family needs and preferences when measuring demand. Most access analyses to date have used broad population estimates (e.g., the number children under 5 in a geographic area) to measure “potential demand” for CCEE. While some access research has examined potential demand for families with certain characteristics (e.g., income level or parental employment), research has rarely looked at how potential demand might vary across subgroups or how families might exist within several subgroups. Most access analyses have also not considered families’ preferences and needs when examining demand and how this aligns with the current supply of care. Ensuring that family perspectives are included is critical.
3) Consider how state and local contexts influence families’ needs, preferences, and use of care. Measures that center families’ needs and preferences can also help state leaders understand how CCEE policies help families access CCEE and how to better design supports to promote equitable access. Exploring the questions above related to families’ awareness of policies, barriers to accessing supports, how supports help them afford CCEE, and how supports help meet their CCEE needs can advance states’ knowledge of how policies are helping to support CCEE access. Additionally, states can also examine trends in the use of care by families to understand effects of policies on access.
Citation
Banghart, P., Hirilall, A., Tout, K., Guerra, G., Paschall, K., & Thomson, D. (2024). Understanding Families’ Needs and Preferences to Advance Measurement of Equitable Access to Child Care and Early Education. OPRE Report #2024-254. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Related Documents
Defining and Measuring Access to High-Quality Early Care and Education (ECE): A Guidebook for Policymakers and Researchers, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/defining-and-measuring-access-high-quality-early-care-and-education-ece-guidebook
Conceptualizing and Measuring Access to Early Care and Education, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/conceptualizing-and-measuring-access-early-care-and-education
Analyzing Access with Child Care and Early Education Data, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/analyzing-access-child-care-and-early-education-data
Quick Fact Images
Figure 1. Access dimensions
Glossary
- Access to early care and education :
- means that parents, with reasonable effort and affordability, can enroll their children in an arrangement that supports their child’s development and meets the parent’s needs.
- Supports Children’s Development:
- care that is high-quality, stable, coordinated, and meets children’s unique needs.
- Reasonable Effort:
- the availability and use of care and information about care.
- Affordability:
- the cost of care to parents and providers.
- Meets Parents’ Needs:
- parents’ preferred type of program, availability of transportation, and hours of operation.