Child Care

This brief explores important trends in the child care industry during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and places those trends in a historical context. Specifically, we find:

Nutrition assistance programs have been shown to increase children’s health and well-being and decrease the risk of child maltreatment. At the same time, food insecurity rose in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This factsheet provides descriptive information on child care eligibility and receipt. Of the 12.5 million children potentially eligible for child care subsidies under federal rules, 16 percent received subsidies. Of the 8.7 million children eligible for child care subsidies under more restrictive state rules, 23 percent received subsidies.

COVID-19 pandemic’s social restrictions have prompted a surge in the mental health needs of children of all ages. Nationwide 4.3 million children/adolescents have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of August 2021, and many of them have returned to early childhood and school settings. Schools and early childhood programs have long been essential settings for delivery of mental health services.

This factsheet provides descriptive information on child care eligibility and receipt. Of the 12.8 million children eligible for child care subsidies under federal rules, 15 percent received subsidies. Of the 8.4 million children eligible for child care subsidies under state rules, 23 percent received subsidies. Poorer children were more likely to receive subsidies than less poor children.

This project was a collaborative effort by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and the Office of Women’s Health (OWH). This work examines how investments by the U.S.

This project examines the initial effects of policy changes required by the 2014 reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program as well as the subsequent CCDF final rule published in September 2016 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

This factsheet provides descriptive information on child care eligibility and receipt. Of the 13.5 million children eligible for child care subsidies under federal rules, 14 percent received subsidies. Of the 8.7 million children eligible for child care subsidies under state rules, 22 percent received subsidies. Poorer children were more likely to receive subsidies than less poor children.

This is the third ASPE brief about a qualitative study examining lower-income mothers’ attachment to work around the time of childbirth and the role of state paid family leave (PFL) programs in supporting their return to employment. This brief focuses on the role of PFL in facilitating child care arrangements of a sample of mothers. Highlights are:

Children under age five are about as likely to participate in nonparental care arrangements as they were in the mid-1990s. Children in nonparental care are now more likely to participate in center programs and less likely to receive care from family child care providers.