Child-care subsidies and child-care choices over time

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Public Policy
• Early Childhood Education

Background:

• Mixed evidence exists on the impact of federal child-care subsidies on preschool quality.
• A potential, yet untested, outcome is how subsidies influence subsequent child-care choices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if federal child-care subsidy receipt in toddlerhood influences enrollment in other publicly funded preschool programs.
• To determine if this association is moderated by the type of care utilized with the subsidy.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n ≈ 2,100).
• Analyzed the relationship between toddler subsidy receipt and preschool enrollment in Head Start or public pre-k.
• Examined whether prior subsidy use in a center-based setting impacted this relationship.

Main Results:

• Subsidy receipt during toddlerhood predicted increased use of Head Start or public pre-k in the preschool year.
• This effect was significant only when the toddler subsidy was used in a center-based child-care setting.
• Findings suggest a nuanced pathway through which subsidies may influence access to higher-quality care.

Conclusions:

• Federal child-care subsidies may serve as a pathway to higher-quality, publicly funded preschool programs for low-income families.
• The type of care utilized (center-based) when receiving the initial subsidy is a critical factor in this pathway.
• These findings suggest a previously unrecognized benefit of the child-care subsidy program.