CHILD CARE ACCESSIBILITY INDEX: LEVERAGING SC CHILD CARE ADMINISTRATIVE DATA TO INFORM STATE CCDBG SUBSIDY POLICIES

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this project is to inform the understanding of state subsidy policies, practices, and procedures that are associated with the accessibility and availability of high quality child care for subsidy eligible children locally as well as nationwide. This project will develop a deeper understanding of accessibility to high quality child care in the context of availability, parental choices and subsidy utilization. Data used in this project are population-level longitudinal South Carolina administrative databases containing information primarily from the state child care licensing and state child subsidy systems, linked with other secondary data such as data from the Census Bureau and additional geo-spatial information on available child care providers. This project will present an application of innovative analyses more commonly used in other disciplines such as geography, economics and transportation as well as early childhood research to develop a Child Care Accessibility Index (CCAI) that would serve as a reliable tool to quickly assess accessibility in geographic regions based on key variables available in the de-identified state administrative databases. The study is grounded in previous research from the field, based on extensive descriptive analyses and will be developed in close collaboration with the Division of Early Care and Education (DECE) in the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS) and other stakeholders with a focus on functionality of the research findings and its application in the field.