OCTOBER 2016

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

CAPITOL RESEARCH
HUMAN SERVICES

The Child Care Dilemma: Availability & Access

This is the third installment of a series of research

briefs focusing on child care in the United States. The
first brief provided an overview of child care, including
what families with children look like today. The second
brief explored the affordability of child care. This brief
focuses on questions about the availability and access
American families have to child care from state to state.
How can families choose which setting is best for their
child? How many slots are available per child in a state,
and how many child care workers are there?

The Council of State Governments

According to data published by

Child Care Aware of America, if all
the guardians of children under
age 5 wanted to place their child in
a child care center or family care
center in 2014, for the 39 states and
the District of Columbia reporting,
there would not be enough spaces.

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

Before diving in, lets review the key takeaways

related to the financial costs of child care:
The cost of child care for one infant at a child care
center, where child care is provided in a facility
outside a home, represented on average between
9 percent and 35 percent of the median household
income for a family with children across the states
in 2014. The picture was a bit better for family care
centers, where the care setting is the child care providers homebetween 1.5 percent and 25 percent.1
For a single parent with two children living at the
federal poverty level, infant child care at a child
care center would eat up at least a quarter of the
familys income of $19,073.2
In many states, child care is more expensive than
public university tuition. However, the financial
burden of child care decreases as children get older.3
States receive federal dollars from the Child Care
Development Fund, or CCDF, administered by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
to provide financial relief for low-income families
in the form of child care subsidies. While there are
some parameters set by federal statute, states still
have some control over eligibility requirements,
including income.4

If every child under 5 years old needed a slot in a Child Care Center in 2014,
how many Children would be covered?
Less than one third
Between one third
and two thirds
More than two thirds
Data unavailable

Considering population estimates and program

participation, among all U.S. children under age 5,
between 1.15 percent and 7.5 percent were served
by the CCDF subsidy program in the states; for
children under 14, the proportion benefitting from
the programs subsidies range was 0.75 percent to
4.3 percent of the population.5 To contrast, the poverty rate for U.S. children overall was between 11.5
and 32.2 percent, depending on state of residence.6
Families that do receive this grant may have a copayment, and if so, the average copayment for child
care represented between 2.7 percent and 40.5 percent of family income depending on their state of
residence in 2014.7

Availability of Child Care8

There is wide variance on the availability of child
care from state to state. According to data published
by Child Care Aware of America, if all the guardians
of children under age 5 wanted to place their child in
a child care center or family care center in 2014, for
the 39 states and the District of Columbia reporting,
there would not be enough spaces.9 Vermont had the
highest ratio of child care slots to children under 5
at 80.8 percent. However, the total number of slots used
in this formula included care for school-age children;
likely in most states, the ratio of child care slots to
children not yet in school was lower. The average ratio
2

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

of child care slots to children across states in 2014 was

approximately 51 percent. If all of those child care slots
were for children under age 5, only half of them would
have a space available to them in a child care center
or family care center. Of the 39 states and District of
Columbia reporting, 16 states and Washington, D.C.,
fell below that average. Utah had the lowest ratio of
child care slots to children, where there were only 0.15
slots for every child under 5 years old.
Of the child care slots available in 38 of the 40 reporting
jurisdictions in 2014, the majority of those slots were
in child care centers. Only in Minnesota is the majority
of slots available in family care centers, in which child
care is provided out of the child care providers home.
In Kansas, there isnt a clear majority, with a fairly even
split between the number of slots in child care centers
and family care centers. In 12 states, more than a quarter
of those jurisdictions reporting, slots in child care centers represented over 90 percent of what was available
on the market in 2014.
The number of available slots is impacted by the number of child care workers. Comparing the number of
child care workers in 2014 in the states to the number
of centers and family care homes, the ratio of workers
to child care facilities ranged from 4.87 in Utah to less
than one in Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico
and Vermont.10 On average, child care workers in 2014
made between $18,090 and $26,470 a year.11

Percentage of States Children Under Age 5 Served by Both CCDF and Head Start Assistance

Percentage of Children under 5

20%

15%

10%

5%

NV UT MD VA CT CO CA ID AZ ME SC TX NH NJ MA MN KY AR KS IL IA WA WI NC IN HI OH GA NE NY FL MI DE TN MO AL RI AK OR WY MT LA PA WV SD OK ND VT NM MS DC

Access to Child Care

What resources are states providing guardians needing
child care to learn about whats available in their area
and how particular options compare? Guardians can
search for child care providers online; states have electronic provider search tools for families to peruse to
find options for child care in their area, as mandated
by law via the Child Care and Development Block
Grant of 2014.12
There are many potential challenges to accessing
carefinding a quality program is only one of several.
For instance, families may struggle to find a provider
that has space for their child and meets the familys
financial needs. Subsidies administered by state governments from the CCDF program are one of several
options available to families to access early childhood
education. Others include Head Start, Early Head Start
and state pre-kindergarten programs, all of which are
free of charge to families of the children they serve.
Some of these programs have income-level eligibility
requirements, while others do not.
Adding the number of children served by Head Start
programs and CCDF subsidies together, the ratio of
federally funded or federally subsidized early childhood education programs comes into focus. Assuming
no overlap in service utilization, the District of Columbia has the highest potential capacity in federally funded
programs. In Washington, D.C., almost 20 percent of
children under age 5 could have been in an early childhood education setting covered by federal funding in
2014. In addition to Washington, D.C., 13 states had
ratios of federally subsidized early childhood education
3

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

programs to children under age 5 that were higher than

10 percent that year. Nevada had the lowest proportion
of early childhood education program slots to children
under 5 covered by federal dollars, followed by Utah and
Maryland; all three states had ratios under 6 percent.
To provide access to quality, affordable early childhood
education, some states have supplemented federally
funded programs and offer state early childhood education options. In 2015, 42 states and the District of
Columbia had some type of state-funded preschool
program, and 33 of these programs had income requirements.13 For example, in Vermont, 84 percent of 4 year
olds and 26 percent of 3 year olds enrolled in a state
pre-kindergarten program in 2014.14 By law, all school
districts in Vermont must provide pre-kindergarten
for at least 10 hours per week for 35 weeks of the year;
Vermont also has set quality standards for all pre-K
operations.15
Waiting lists are also a challenge for many families.
While information on the prevalence of long waiting
times for preferred child care providers is mostly anecdotal, there is state-by-state data on waiting lists for
child care assistance. According to a survey conducted
by the National Womens Law Center in 2015, 21 states
used waiting lists for child care assistance subsidies.16
Of those that were able to report the number of children on waiting lists for child care assistancesome
states had locally maintained waiting liststhe average
number of children on a state waitlist was 10,725. Florida
reported the longest waitlist, with 51,397 children waiting for child care assistance. The shortest lists were in
New Mexico and Colorado, the former having a list
of 126 children and the latters list having 45 entries.

Whats At Stake for Quality Care?

Research has shown that early childhood education
is important to future success. The fourth brief in
this series will explore how states are assessing and
impacting the quality of early childhood education
experience. Keys to quality programs include an
experienced and educated workforce, standard metrics measuring quality, and consumer transparency.
The fifth and final brief will bring these themes togetherwhat does all of this mean for families making
decisions about guardian workforce participation?
How are states addressing the question of child care?

U.S. Census ACS 2014 Estimates.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children &
Families Office of Child Care. Characteristics of Families Served by Child Care and
Development Fund (CCDF) Based on Preliminary FY 2014 Data, http://www.acf.
hhs.gov/occ/resource/characteristics-of-families-served-by-child-care-and-development-fund-ccdf. October 22, 2015.

All information on number of slots available comes from Child Care Aware of
Americas 2015 State Fact Sheets, which represent 2014 access. http://www.usa.
childcareaware.org/advocacy-public-policy/resources/reports-and-research/
statefactsheets/.

Authors analysis of Child Care Aware Fact Sheets and the U.S. Census ACS 2014
estimates.

10
11

Ibid.

Ibid.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children &
Families Office of Child Care. Child Care and Development Block Grant Act
(CCDBG) of 2014: Plain Language Summary of Statutory Changes, http://www.
acf.hhs.gov/occ/resource/ccdbg-of-2014-plain-language-summary-of-statutorychanges. November 18, 2014.
12

RESOURCES
Authors analysis of U.S. Census ACS 2014 estimates and Child Care Aware 2015
State Fact Sheets, showing 2014 data. See The Child Care Dilemma: Affordability for more information and data set.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Minton, Sarah; Stevens, Kathryn; Blatt, Lorraine; and Durham, Christin of the
Urban Institute. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for
Children & Families Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation. The CCDF Policies
Database Book of Tables: Key Cross-State Variations in CCDF Policies as of October 1,
2014, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/ccdf_policies_database_2014
_book_of_tables_final_11_05_15_b508_3.pdf. October 2015.
4

Authors analysis of: U.S. Census ACS 2014 Estimates; and U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families Office of Child
Care. Characteristics of Families Served by Child Care and Development Fund
(CCDF) Based on Preliminary FY 2014 Data, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/resource/
characteristics-of-families-served-by-child-care-and-development-fund-ccdf.
October 22, 2015.

THE COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

13
National Institute for Early Education Research. The State of Preschool 2015:
State Preschool Yearbook Executive Overview, http://nieer.org/sites/nieer/files/
Executive%20Summary%202015.pdf. Pg 10.
14

Ibid. Pg 14.

National Institute for Early Education Research. The State of Preschool 2015:
State Preschool Yearbook, Vermont, http://nieer.org/sites/nieer/files/Vermont_
2015.pdf. 2015.

15

16
Schulman, Karen; Blank, Helen. National Womens Law Center. Building Blocks:
State Child Care Assistance Policies 2015, https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/
2015/11/CC_RP_Building_Blocks_Assistance_Policies_2015.pdf. Table 2: Waiting
Lists for Child Care Assistance. Pg 26.

Sarah Smith, CSG Graduate Fellow, ssmith@csg.org