Our research team has been investigating patterns of child care accessibility across New York State (NYS) using data that includes information about child care and state prekindergarten programs, subsidy administration, special education rates, and local community characteristics. With funding from Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) we have enhanced our data collection with monthly extracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are positioned to extend our pre-pandemic research by examining how child care accessibility has changed during and after COVID-19. Specifically, the objectives for this proposed work are as follows:

Investigate child care capacity since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with attention to community characteristics (i.e., geography, community wealth, presence of universal prekindergarten (UPK), subsidy generosity, etc.), child care policy shifts (e.g., caps on subsidy parent co-payment), and influx of new funding (e.g., funding for child care expansion).

Examine the relationship between child care capacity and the outcomes for special education students over time (e.g., pre- and post UPK implementation, pre- and post-COVID-19).

Explore how UPK and CBO partnerships relate to child care capacity changes during COVID-19.

We investigate these objectives with data from the NYS Education Department, the NYS Office of Children and Family Services, and the National Center for Education Statistics. Using these data over time, we can investigate in the context of economic challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic how this informs cross-sector policy making and implementation. (author abstract)