Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Quality child care promotes school readiness and other important developmental outcomes, yet low-income families generally have less access to high-quality care. Child care subsidies, provided by Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), are an important facilitator of quality care among low-income families. Families of children with developmental delays and disabilities (special needs) have compounded needs for support to mitigate the negative effects of special needs on child functioning. High-quality early care and education reduce the risk of later special education needs. Yet little is known about subsidy use among young children and even less so for young children with special needs. This paper will describe patterns and predictors of subsidy use among children with special needs relative to typically developing children within the population of subsidy-eligible low-income families. Specifically, we will estimate rates of subsidized care among low-income children throughout early childhood, examining potential differences in use among low-income children with and without special needs.  We will also examine child and family characteristics that predict use of subsidized care.

We use the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth cohort (ECLS-B), which included 10,700 children born in 2001.  Our analytic sample is a subset and consists of 4900 low-income children (unweighted; 1, 499,000 weighted) in subsidy-eligible families (51% female, 49% male), including children with special needs.   Currently, analyses are ongoing; findings for this proposal come from preliminary results using Wave 1 (children are 9 months); subsequent analyses including waves 2 (children are 24 months) and 3 (children are 48 months) will also be presented.  The sample is ethnically diverse (31 % White, 23% Black, 38 % Hispanic, 2% Asian-Pacific islander, 5% multi-race), and 29 % speak a language other than English.  Mothers’ average age is 25.6, and the majority (77%) have a high school degree or less.  Forty-six percent of mothers are married and 39 % report working in a full or part-time capacity. There is heavy receipt of health subsidies (85 %) and of food subsidies (91 %).  

Preliminary analyses suggest that rates of subsidy use for low-income infants hover just above 8%; 8.4% of infants without special needs and 8.1% of infants with special needs received a child care subsidy.  Ongoing analyses will include estimating subsidy use for toddlers and preschoolers with and without special needs, examining differences in use of subsidized care by infants, toddlers and preschoolers with and without special needs, and testing models of child and family characteristics (e.g., race, home language, maternal work status, maternal marital status) that predict subsidy use for infants, toddlers and preschoolers with special needs.

Because poverty increases risk of special needs, and both poverty and special needs increase the risk for reduced school readiness, understanding use of child care subsidies within this unique subpopulation, particularly early in children’s lives when they are most susceptible to risk and amenable to intervention, is critical. Knowledge of subsidy use can promote effective implementation and refinement of subsidy policy, help low-income families improve utilization of high-quality child care options, and bolster advocacy efforts.