View the full project profile

Project Description

The National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families is a six million dollar study funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the US Department of Health and Human Services; Abt Associates Inc. of Cambridge, MA and the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, were selected to conduct the study. This work will provide federal and state and local policy makers with much-needed information on the effects of federal, state and local policies and programs on the child care market at the community level, and on the employment and child care decisions of low-income families. It will also provide insights into the characteristics and functioning of family child care, a type of care frequently used by low-income families but little-studied, and the experiences of parents and their children with this form of care.

Six specific objectives have been identified for the study, including: 1) to develop an understanding of state child care and welfare policies and how these are implemented at the community-level; 2) to develop an understanding of how other community-level factors (e.g., the community poverty rate, labor market, and the nature and scope of institutions related to child care) affect the way that communities are organized to help low-income families address work and child care needs; 3) to examine the effects of child care and welfare policies and community-level factors on the demand for and the supply of child care, and on the types of child care arrangements that low-income parents make; 4) to examine changes in policies and programs over time and the effects of these changes; 5) to examine and model the child care decisions of low-income families and the role of child care subsidies in decision-making; and 6) to conduct an in-depth examination of family child care used by low-income families, including the role of family child care in helping poor families manage the competing demands of work and child care, and children’s experiences in the care environment.

The study has three components: the state and community study, the community survey, and the in-depth study of family child care.

Project duration: Jan 1997 - Jan 2002

Sites studied include There are 25 county/county groups in the study:

Mobile County, Alabama;
Los Angeles County, California;
Orange County, California;
Riverside County, California;
Madison County, Indiana;
Cook County, Illinois;
Ouchita County, Louisiana;
Franklin County, Massachusetts;
Wayne County, Michigan;
Hennepin County, Minnesota;
Itasca, Koochiching, Pennington Counties, Minnesota;
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina;
Alamance County, North Carolina;
Johnston County, North Carolina;
Union County, New Jersey;
Dona Ana County, New Mexico;
Luna, Grant, Hidalgo Counties, New Mexico;
Orange County, New York;
Hamilton County, Ohio;
Shelby County, Tennessee;
Hardeman, Fayette, Haywood, Lake, Lauderdale Counties, Tennessee;
Marshall, Coffee, Bedford Counties, Tennessee;
Harris County, Texas;
Arlington County, Virginia;
King County, Washington

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

State and Community Study: varying number of intensive interviews with state and local child care subsidy administration staff, welfare administration staff, as well as key local respondents in each of the 25 study counties/county groups in 17 states.

Community Survey: A random sample of 5,000 low-income families (200 families in each community) with working parents and at least one child under age nine for whom they use non-parental child care is selected in the same 25 study communities. In-depth Study of Family Child Care: 130 low-income parents in each community who are receiving, or have applied for, child care subsidies, and who have at least one child between one and nine years who is using family child care at the start of the study (total sample =650). In addition, the family child care provider linked with each family is recruited, for a total sample of 650 family child care providers at the start of the study.

Recent Findings in Brief

Contact