Who's Caring for Our Youngest Children?: Child Care Patterns of Infants and Toddlers

Who’s Caring forOur YoungestChildren? ChildCare Patterns ofInfants andToddlersJennifer Ehrle, The Urban InstituteGina Adams, The Urban InstituteKathryn Tout, Child TrendsOccasional Paper Number 42Who’s Caring forOur YoungestChildren? ChildCare Patterns ofInfants andToddlersAn Urban Institute Program to Assess Changing Social PoliciesAssessingthe NewFederalism Who’s Caring forOur YoungestChildren? ChildCare Patterns ofInfants andToddlersJennifer Ehrle, The Urban InstituteGina Adams, The Urban InstituteKathryn Tout, Child TrendsOccasional Paper Number 42The Urban Institute2100 M Street, N.W.Washington, DC 20037Phone: 202.833.7200Fax: 202.429.0687E-Mail:paffairs@ui.urban.orghttp://www.urban.orgAn Urban Institute Program to Assess Changing Social Policies Copyright © January 2001. The Urban Institute. All rights reserved. Except for short quotes, no part of thisbook may be reproduced in any form or utilized in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopying, recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from theUrban Institute.This paper is part of the Urban Institute’sAssessing the New Federalism(ANF) project, a multiyear effort to mon-itor and assess the devolution of social programs from the federal to the state and local levels. Alan Weil is theproject director. The project analyzes changes in income support, social services, and health programs. In col-laboration with Child Trends, the project studies child and family well-being. This paper received special funding from the Louise and Ardè Bulova Foundation. Additional funding came fromThe Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TheHenry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, The Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The JohnD. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The McKnight Foundation,The Commonwealth Fund, the Stuart Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, The Fund for New Jersey, TheLynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consid-eration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, itstrustees, or its funders. The authors thank Stacey Phillips for producing the statistics and tables presented in the paper, and Katy Kor-tenkamp and N’Kenge Gibson for assisting with final data production. Many thanks as well to Joan Lombardi,Deborah Phillips, Duncan Chaplin, Erika Lurie-Hurvitz, J. Ronald Lally, Emily Fenichel, Victoria Youcha, FreyaSonenstein, Jeffrey Capizzano, Alan Weil, and Martha Zaslow, who reviewed early drafts of this paper and pro-vided insightful and helpful comments. About the SeriesAssessing the New Federalismis a multiyear Urban Institute projectdesigned to analyze the devolution of responsibility for social programsfrom the federal government to the states, focusing primarily on healthcare, income security, employment and training programs, and social ser-vices. Researchers monitor program changes and fiscal developments. In collaborationwith Child Trends, the project studies changes in family well-being. The project aimsto provide timely, nonpartisan information to inform public debate and to help stateand local decisionmakers carry out their new responsibilities more effectively.Key components of the project include a household survey, studies of policies in 13states, and a database with information on all states and the District of Columbia,available at the Urban Institute’s Web site (http://www.urban.org). This paper isone in a series of occasional papers analyzing information from these and othersources. ContentsExecutive Summary viiIntroduction 1Examining Child Care Arrangements for Young Children 2The Data 2This Paper 2Understanding the Data 3How Young Children of Employed Mothers Are Being Cared For 4Care and the Age of the Child 5Types of Care 5Hours in Care 6Number of Arrangements 6Care and the Race/Ethnicity of the Child 6Types of Care 6Hours in Care 6Number of Arrangements 7Care and the Mother’s Level of Education 8Types of Care 8Hours in Care 9Number of Arrangements 9 Care and Family Income 9Types of Care 9Hours in Care 10Number of Arrangements 10Care and Family Structure 10Types of Care 11Hours in Care 11Number of Arrangements 12Care and Parent Availability 13Types of Care 13Hours in Care 14Number of Arrangements 14Special Focus: Relative Care for Infants and Toddlers 15Overall Patterns of Care 16Implications 17Appendix A --1997 NSAF Data Appendix B -- 1999 NSAF DataNotes 29References 31About the Authors 33WHO’S CARING FOR OUR YOUNGEST CHILDREN? CHILD CARE PATTERNS OF INFANTS