Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper studies how enrollment of low income children during early childhood in childcare programs paid with subsidies from the Child Care and Development Fund Program (CCDF) affected their performance in standardized achievement tests and their school absences in the eighth grade. We estimate average effects and effects for subgroups of children differentiated by the types of providers they were first exposed to. Our research contributes to fill a knowledge gap that is left from mixed results, data quality problems and a limited set of outcomes analyzed in the extant literature that evaluates the effects of the CCDF program on children.

We employ a uniquely rich database of linked administrative records that follows children experiences in CCDF during early childhood and identifies their school outcomes in the eighth grade. We employ non-parametric matching estimators that condition on a rich set of observable characteristics to mimic random assignment, and validate our results with instrumental variables estimators.

We found that, in the eighth grade, the test scores in reading and math of the average child whose parents enrolled her in childcare subsidized by the CCDF program were not affected by that exposure. The magnitude of the matching estimates on test scores is quite negligible (almost zero) and, in fact, cannot be statistically distinguished from zero at conventional levels of precision. However, when the exposure of children to childcare paid with CCDF funds occurs in either center-based childcare, or in licensed homes, matching estimates render positive effects on those test scores (effects range from 18% to 24% of one standard deviation).

Compared to other children who were otherwise observationally equivalent, the average child who was exposed to childcare subsidized by the CCDF program had fewer student absences in the eighth grade. The effects of CCDF total 8% of one standard deviation of the unconditional school absences distribution. The effects of CCDF on eighth grade school attendance appear to be driven by positive behavioral impacts that derive from early exposure of children to center-based childcare programs that low income families could afford with CCDF subsidies. Notably, when children are exposed to center-based childcare subsidized by CCDF they show fewer absences than other children whose parents did not use CCDF funds. Matching estimates of the effects of center-based childcare exposure afforded with CCDF funds render a difference of 24% of one standard deviation, indicating positive effects (reduction) on absenteeism.

Results from our research challenge previous findings suggesting that the effects of CCDF on test scores completely fade out by the third grade. Our findings are also consistent with long term follow-up evaluations of the effects of early childhood programs which have found benefits of early exposure to high quality childcare on outcomes such as crime, high school graduation, college enrollment, employment and wages.