Which low-income parents select child-care?

Abstract

Public spending on child-care has grown steadily over the past two decades, flowing to parents in the form of portable vouchers, especially in the wake of the 1996 welfare reforms. At the same time, Head Start and state preschool programs continue to allocate funds directly to neighborhood and school organizations. Little is known about how diverse low-income parents enter this mixed market of child-care providers, then select from among centers and after-school programs, licensed day-care homes, or individual caregivers. Do parents' attributes, along with participation in welfare, affect whether they enter the market or instead rely on nonmarket caregivers, and what type of care they select? To what extent does the local availability of programs condition parental choice? We address these questions, drawing from interviews with 1974 employed parents moving from welfare to work in three California counties. We found that married parents, Latinos, Vietnamese, and non-English speakers, in general, were less likely to select a center or formal after-program, instead relying on home-based providers. Parents with higher school attainment, working longer hours, and earning more were more likely to choose a center or after-school organization. The ages and number of children in the home were related to selection patterns. Non-English speaking parents residing in neighborhoods with more abundant enrollment slots in child-care centers were more likely to choose such a program. We discuss implications for how we theorize about diverse poor families making choices in mixed markets, or being allocated to organized child-care opportunities across variable neighborhoods.

Introduction

Public investment in child-care and after-school programs has climbed steadily over the past two decades.¹ Annual federal spending in the wake of welfare reform has risen dramatically, from $6.8 to $14.3 billion since 1995 (Besharov & Samari, 2001). In addition, the movement to widen access to preschool is gaining steam in several states, moving from unlikely places like Georgia and Oklahoma, out to urban states such as California and New Jersey.

But it is public funding for child-care vouchers that has displayed the most robust growth over the past decade. States have followed suit with pro parental-choice policies, including portable “certificates” which parents carry to preschool or after-school programs or instead to individual caregivers, from grandmothers to boyfriends.² Spending on vouchers has increased eight-fold in California alone, rising to almost $1.5 billion in yearly outlays since 1996 (Fuller, Kagan, Caspary, & Gauthier, 2002). Parental choice in the child-care arena is unfolding within mixed markets of providers, including centers based in community-based organizations (CBOs) or schools, along with the panoply of individual caregivers. Several states continue to directly fund programs via contracts with school districts, similar to how federal Head Start calls on schools and CBOs to run local programs (Blau, 2001, Schulman et al., 2001).

Earlier studies have detailed social-class disparities in terms of which parents are more likely to enroll their child in formal child-care or after-school programs, and how the distribution of organizations varies widely across states and neighborhoods (Fuller et al., 1993, Vandell & Wolfe, 2000). Much less is known about how diverse low-income parents make child-care choices–including families with differing ethnic and linguistic backgrounds–and how the local availability of programs may condition family-level “choice” within mixed markets of providers.

These issues hold great policy relevance. As states build more preschools and expand after-school programs, it is important to know which families are more likely to respond. Significant early learning gains have been observed for children who attend quality centers or after-school programs (Currie & Neidel, 2004, Vandell & Wolfe, 2000). But many low-income parents continue to rely exclusively on (nonmarket) home-based caregivers. Public spending is rising with little understanding of which children most likely benefit, driven initially by parents' selection decision. Policymakers often assume little differentiation among low-income families and instead claim that boosting the local supply of programs will benefit all.

We first review two literatures that inform our research questions, including work in child development on which families are more likely to enter the child-care market, and then research on which parents opt to participate in family-support programs. Second, we detail our research design and the questions posed to 1974 parents who were attempting to get off welfare and into jobs in 2001. Third, we model how parents' demographic and economic attributes, household structure, and engagement in welfare programs help to account for child-care and after-school choices. We study a two-level model to assess how the local availability of child-care centers may condition parents' selection patterns. Finally, we discuss the policy and theoretical implications for how we think about individual parents finding child-care within their cultural and institutional contexts.