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Child Care Policy Research Consortium

Child care research and evaluation are critical to understanding child care and its implications for children and families. Under Federal legislation governing welfare and child care, States have the opportunity to craft programs suited to their citizens; however, they are also faced with unprecedented challenges in meeting the needs of low-income, under-served, and other vulnerable populations. Public agencies are increasingly under pressure to use their child care dollars as effectively as possible and to demonstrate how their investments are making a difference in the lives of families with children. Research and analysis of administrative data need to be expanded and updated in order to address policy and planning issues.

A significant amount of child care research is currently being conducted with support from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and other funding agencies. In 1995, the CCB initiated a series of cooperative agreements for Child Care Policy Research Partnerships. These partnerships, composed of policy makers, practitioners, and researchers, are providing State and cross-State information on child care needs, utilization patterns and outcomes for low-income families. They have contributed information on the effects of State and local policies on (1) parents’ choice of care; (2) the supply of care; (3) the duration of subsidy utilization and child care arrangements; and (4) the relationship between availability of subsidized care and entry into the job market. Twenty-two States have participated in these research collaborations.

During FY 2000, the CCB funded twelve new Field Initiated Child Care Research Grants, four additional Policy Research Partnerships, and five Research Scholars to work on a wide variety of research projects in areas such as subsidy utilization, parental employment and choice of care, quality of care, care of infants and toddlers, cost of care, supply and demand of care, and child care workforce.

In addition, in FY 2000, CCB funded the development of the Child Care Research Collaboration and Archive to create an infrastructure for collaborative research, analysis, and information sharing among researchers, policy makers, and other key stakeholders. It will serve as a repository of child care research and data through a web-based archive; develop and disseminate materials designed to improve child care policy research; and make research findings readily available to policy makers.

With the receipt of FY 2001 Discretionary Funds for Research, the Child Care Bureau funded twelve new Field Initiated Child Care Research Grants and four additional Research Scholars. These grantees are continuing the work needed to answer child care questions at the national, state and local level. Some are focusing on the child care needs of families with infants and toddlers, children with special needs, ethnic minority children, and children utilizing before and after-school care. In addition, FY 2001 funds are supporting new research initiatives: three State Child Care Data and Research Capacity grants for States to develop their child care data and research capacity either internally or through contract; a contract to design and conduct a multi-site, multi-year evaluation to study the net impact, implementation, and benefits of selected child care policy programs and strategies; and a task order to develop an analytic review paper of the research literature related to child care subsidy policies and their outcomes.

To learn more about the Child Care Bureau’s research priorities go to the Index of Research Priority Areas.

Research Agenda and Goals

The Child Care Bureau’s research agenda supports activities that have the potential to provide information and data to guide child care services, inform policy debates, and assist in developing solutions to complex child care issues. We intend to improve our capacity to respond to questions of immediate concern to policy makers, strengthen the child care research infrastructure, and increase knowledge. We are particularly concerned about the efficacy of child care policies and programs in providing positive outcomes for children and helping low-income families obtain and retain work.

The Bureau’s research agenda is broadly construed, with projects engaged in a wide variety of studies related to the following sets of issues:

• The child care needs, decision-making processes, utilization patterns, and outcomes for low-income families, including welfare recipients, those moving from welfare to work, and the working poor;

• The child care opportunities and constraints which affect low-income families and children under differing child care policies, changing State and local child care systems, and emerging market conditions;

• Child care quality, costs and outcomes, particularly for low-income children and families;

• Population variations and their implications for child care demand, supply, and outcomes;

• State child care policy variations and their effects.

Projects established in earlier years are providing descriptions of local child care populations, services, and outcomes; local profiles of child care supply and demand; and information related to implementation of State child care policies, subsidy programs, and welfare reform. New projects funded in fiscal year 2001 will expand these types of efforts, launch an evaluation of selected State child care subsidy policies, and initiate State-level data and research capacity-building efforts.    

Child Care Policy Research Consortium

The Child Care Policy Research Consortium is a national alliance of research projects sponsored by the Child Care Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The purpose of this consortium is to help the Child Care Bureau increase the national capacity for sound child care research, identify and respond to critical issues, and link child care research with policy, practice, and consumer demand. Six major goals underlie the work of the consortium. First is to address issues facing child care administrators who must implement child care policies and programs that support employment-related goals for parents, promote healthy child development, and meet emerging needs. Second is to stimulate greater collaboration and interdisciplinary research on issues affecting children, families, and communities. Third is to develop greater compatibility among child care data systems and create longitudinal data sets from child care subsidy systems, regulatory information systems, resource and referral systems, and other key sources. Fourth is to establish a Child Care Research Collaboration and Archive to develop a national research infrastructure. Fifth is to evaluate State child care policies and programs; and sixth is to increase state-level capacity for research and data collection.

The consortium is composed of partnerships to link research, policy and practice; projects to address priorities identified by stakeholders in the field; scholarships to increase the number of new researchers who specialize in child care research; national and State-level initiatives to build research capacity and usefulness; and evaluation of child care subsidy policies and programs. Many of the projects receive significant support in matching funds from the grantee and other sponsoring organizations. This is particularly true for the research partnerships, field initiated projects and State capacity grants. Contracts are fully funded by the Child Care Bureau.