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Abstract
Subsidies in the form of child care vouchers that help parents pay for child care in the setting of their choice are an important support for low-income families. Providers willing to accept children with vouchers, and to provide high quality services, are a linchpin of the child care voucher system. Yet we know relatively little about the experiences of child care providers with the voucher system, and the policies and practices that most affect them. This comprehensive report looks at the experiences of child care centers and licensed family child care homes with the voucher subsidy system in five counties around the country in 2003–04. Using a blend of quantitative data from a telephone survey of a representative sample of providers and qualitative data from site visits, this report examines the experiences of providers in serving children who receive vouchers and in working with voucher agencies; identifies the key features of the child care voucher program, policies, and implementation that most affect providers; and highlights specific policy strategies that can help the voucher system better meet the needs of providers. The paper is one of several being produced as part of the Urban Institute's Child Care Providers and the Child Care Voucher System project.
Introduction
Child care assistance that defrays some of or all the costs of child care is critical in supporting two important social policy goals: helping low‐income families find and maintain stable employment, and helping their children prepare to succeed in school. Child care subsidies funded through the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) are the primary way that the federal and state governments help low‐income families pay for care. In 2005, the CCDF, plus related spending from Temporary Assis‐tance for Needy Families (TANF), served an estimated 2.2 million children at an esti‐mated total funding level of $11.9 billion (Matthews and Ewen 2006).
In recent years, policy experts and researchers have grown more interested in pro‐viders that serve low‐income families in the child care subsidy system. This interest has been motivated by the realization that despite child care providers’ key role, relatively little is known about the providers upon whom the subsidy system depends. In other areas of social policy, such as education and health, provider studies are common. In child care, less is known, though a body of research is emerging in this area. (See appen‐dix A for a list of related studies.)
One issue that is especially important for policymakers is better understanding how child care subsidy programs affect providers. Numerous policies and implementation practices can affect which providers accept subsidies and the quality of the care they are able to offer. This paper adds to the research base on child care subsidies by looking comprehensively at how child care providers experience the subsidy voucher system, what aspects of the system work or do not work for them, and the strategies and policies that might best meet their needs.
The research focuses on the child care voucher system, rather than other mechanisms for subsidizing child care, because vouchers are the approach most commonly used in funding child care assistance for low‐income working families. Since voucher programs are clearly designed as assistance for parents, rather than as assistance for providers, there are diverse views on how much responsibility voucher programs have for ensuring they work effectively with child care providers. The premise of this research, however, is that to successfully support families and children, voucher programs must address the important role and the needs of providers in the voucher system.
This report is part of a larger Urban Institute (UI) study—Child Care Providers and the Child Care Voucher System (described more below and in appendix B)—which includes a blend of quantitative and qualitative data collected from five sites. The sites included Jefferson County, Alabama (Birmingham); San Diego County, California; Monterey County, California; Hudson County, New Jersey (Jersey City); and King County Wash‐ington (Seattle). The quantitative data are from a survey of a representative sample of child care centers and licensed family child care homes in five sites. The qualitative data were collected in the same sites through focus groups and interviews with center direc‐tors and family child care providers, subsidy agency staff, and other key informants.
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