Access to Quality Child Care in Montana: Exploring Parent and Provider Perspectives
An examination of the capacity of Montana's child care system to serve Native American families and rural families of children with disabilities. The study focuses on issues of access, supply, and demand, and seeks to determine whether the availability of child care services is substantially different for Native American children and children with disabilities than for other families. Methodology includes parent and provider surveys as well as on-site assessment of child care programs.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Assessing the Effectiveness of State and Local Quality Initiatives
An exploration of initiatives designed to improve the quality and supply of child care. Questions include: (1) What initiatives have states and communities funded to improve child care quality and expand child care supply?; (2) How do states and communities assess the effectiveness of these initiatives?; and (3) What assessment tools/methods would be useful to states and communities? Products include a tool-kit of assessment measures and an analysis of selected programs.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Barriers to Child Care Subsidies
A project consisting of three related studies. The first utilizes focus groups and a standardized survey with subsidy eligible families to examine subsidy use among low-income families. The second surveys low-income families to explore how child care preferences may be related to race and culture. The third uses observational measures to examine the quality of kith and kin care for families who do not use subsidies. This research provides policy-relevant information about developing subsidy policies that are sensitive to the contextual and cultural differences among low-income families.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Arrangements Among Low-Income Families: A Qualitative Approach
An analysis of child care arrangements among urban low-income families, using qualitative research methods--including interviews with mothers over a twelve month period, and observations in child care settings--to explore the following questions: (1) What are the strategies working families in low income urban communities adopt for their young children's care and development?; (2) How do different strategies affect the way children spend their time during early childhood?; and (3) What comparisons, if any, can be made in the care offered families with young children in American inner-city communities that differ by racial and ethnic composition, and/or the types of services available in those neighborhoods? The goal is to better understand individual family decisions within the context of the choices available at the community level.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Quality and Consumer Education
An assessment and rating of the quality of child care providers in four counties, using structural and process measures, and evaluating the impact of ratings on parent choice and the child care market structure, including supply, prices, and turnover. Ratings are made available to parents, in partnership with resource and referral agencies, and parents are surveyed to explore the types of information used to make child care decisions.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Subsidy Use and Self-Sufficiency Pathways of Low-Income Mothers: A Three-State Study
An exploration of factors related to subsidy take-up rates, child care use for those on subsidies, and the effects of child care subsidies on welfare and employment, based on an analysis of linked individual-level administrative data on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) receipt, use of child care subsidies, and wage reports from Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care Today: Cost and Quality of Family Child Care and Infant/Toddler Care
A comparative study of variations in child care quality and cost across types of care, child ages, workforce characteristics, and community/neighborhood factors, using a random sample of 200 family child care homes and 100 centers serving infants and toddlers. This project is part of a larger study funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Child Care, Welfare and Families: The Nexus of Policies, Practices, and Systems
An examination of the role of welfare policies and practices in shaping child care for low-income families, building on the Urban Institute's New Federalism Project. Key issues include: (1) how child care and welfare systems are organized at State and local levels; (2) the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches; and (3) how overlap and duplication are being addressed.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
The Effects of Child Care Disruptions on Working Parents: An Experience Sampling Approach
An examination of the interaction between child care and parent workplace stress. The study follows ethnically and socioeconomically diverse parents, and randomly samples their behaviors and attitudes to measure the effects of child care disruptions as they occur. Hypotheses include: (1) Parents using workplace-site child care experience fewer negative consequences as a result of child care; (2) Women are more likely to experience the effects of child care problems spilling over and affecting outcomes at work than are men; and (3) Low-income families experience more negative outcomes as a result of child care problems.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Employment and Child Care: What Can We Learn from Experimental Studies that Encourage Low-Income Parents to Work?
An analysis of data from 22,000 recipients in 26 cities and 11 states, using existing welfare data sets from seven of the experimental evaluations conducted by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC). The project examines how employment and income affect child care choices, how child care affects employment and income, and how these factors vary for families reporting child care barriers.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
The Habitat of Family Child Care Providers: The Influences of Caregiver, Contextual and Group Characteristics on Quality Care
A study of 67 licensed family child care providers, examining the unique and combined influences of factors, including education and training, psychological well-being, adult attachment style, commitment to care, and social support, that may promote or undermine quality caregiving. Guided by an ecological model, the study explores links between determinants of caregiver behavior and quality of care, hypothesizing that quality is influenced not only by the process and structural components of child care environments, but also by the personal and supportive characteristics of caregivers.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
How Many is Enough? Estimating the Size of the U.S. Child Care Workforce
A project to develop a methodology for accurately quantifying the child care workforce and projecting the numbers and types of child care workers needed in the future, with an assessment of the current workforce by education and function, hours of work, and market sector. Projections take into account the needs of special populations, including racial and ethnic minorities, those with limited English proficiency, and those with disabilities.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Informal Caregiving Among the White Mountain Apache and its Impact on Child Health and Well Being
An ethnographic study of informal kith and kin care among the White Mountain Apaches, and the effects of child care practices on child health, with an exploration of the implications of welfare reform for parent employment and child care. The project has three basic components: (1) patterns of caregiving; (2) the practice of alternative caregiving and health related behaviors; and (3) community attitudes.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Midwest Child Care Research Partnership
A partnership formed to establish a baseline of child care quality in the Midwest region using performance indicators, and to track changes in quality over time. The study addresses, in a large representative sample, questions concerning the quality of care that child care subsidies are buying, and includes parent surveys and focus groups conducted to better understand parent perceptions of child care quality. The work is linked with Early Head Start research and evaluation in three States (Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri) as well as to a Missouri study of quality in over 500 early childhood settings, and builds on small but important studies within the Midwest region. The performance indicators, data collection strategy and technology are intended for transfer to the States so that they can track quality of care through their subsidized child care programs.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Minnesota Child Care Research Partnership
A partnership exploring how child care affordability, quality, and accessibility affect outcomes for families and children, with a key objective of understanding the effect of State policies such as level of subsidies, tiered reimbursement, and quality regulations. Questions addressed include: (1) How does quality vary for different subgroups, including families who receive subsidies and families from different cultural groups?; (2) How do subsidies affect parents' choice of care, the quality of that care, family earnings, and employment stability?; (3) How does tiered reimbursement affect quality?; and (4) How do subsidies affect the child care market in terms of supply, cost, and quality? Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used. Data from a statewide survey of representative households provides a unique picture of families' child care arrangements, including informal care. Longitudinal analyses of administrative data examine the effect of child care subsidies on employment and earnings.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
New England Workforce Partners for Early Care and Education (NEW Partners)
A partnership focusing on child care workforce issues, developing an infrastructure for routine data collection and analysis in each State, describing the child care workforce in New England, and helping to translate data and findings into policy development, refinement and implementation. Questions addressed include: (1) What does the workforce look like?; (2) How do key variables interact?; (3) What types of professional supports are available and used by caregivers?; (4) What effects do policy innovations have on workforce quality and stability?; and (5) What are the State-by-State variations?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
The Responses of Single Mothers to Welfare and Child Care Subsidy Programs under the New Welfare Reform Act
A comprehensive analysis of single mothers' employment, child care payment, welfare, and child care subsidy decisions in the new welfare environment, using a data set from the National Survey of America's Families. The study models the effects of wages, child care prices, welfare program rules, subsidy benefit, and reimbursement rates on single mothers' welfare participation, use of child care subsidies, employment, and child care payment decisions. The goal of the research is to better understand the barriers that discourage mothers from participating in welfare and child care subsidy programs.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
A Study of Community Strategies for Enhancing the Quality and Affordability of Infant Toddler Child Care for Low Income Families
A study identifying common barriers faced by low-income families in accessing good quality infant and toddler child care. The research builds upon the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, and involves interviews with key informants, on-site visits to three communities, and in-depth case studies of promising community approaches toward lessons to guide future policy decisions and initiatives.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Variations in Child Care and School Success: Longitudinal Follow-up of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study
A longitudinal follow-up of the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes Study through fifth grade, examining variations in child care quality and school performance.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Who Leaves? Who Stays? A Longitudinal Study of the Child Care Workforce
A multi-sector analysis of the factors that promote quality and stability among home-based providers who serve subsidized and non-subsidized children in informal, license-exempt, and regulated settings, including an examination of the professional and financial supports that enable providers to offer high quality care while also maintaining their own economic well-being
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Wisconsin Child Care Research Partnership
A project for the analysis of State data from Wisconsin's Child Care Data Warehouse, and data from the Statewide Child Care Resource & Referral Data Base, to understand the population of families who receive child care subsidies, as well as the supply of care from which they choose. The project examines child care quality in relationship to State child care policies, focusing on shifts in usage of subsidies, changes in the child care marketplace, and assessments of child care quality over time. It includes an examination of the quality of subsidized and non-subsidized child care to identify indicators of quality and beneficial policies, through observations of child care facilities and interviews with 200 programs to assess structural features and processes in subsidized and non-subsidized care.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
