Rhode Island Child Care Partnership Reports

Authors of all reports: Ann Dryden Witte, Ph.D. and Magaly Queralt, Ph.D.
of the Wellesley Child Care Research Partnership

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT produces  the Snapshot Series to describe the research findings produced through the collaboration and to highlight major issues relating to Rhode Island’s child care system based on the reports below.

An Examination of the Child Care Choices of Low-Income Families Receiving Child Care Subsidies (February 2004)

Scope: This report examines the impacts of policy and administrative changes to the child care subsidy program on the child care choices (center care, family care, or informal care) of families using subsidies. Two main populations are studied: 1) Families that are current or former recipients of cash assistance (“FIP families”), and 2) families that were never recipients of cash assistance (“non-FIP families”), both of which use child care subsidies. The report presents data for both populations subdivided into three groups: families with one, two and three children in subsidized care. The report also takes into consideration the effects of numerous household and community characteristics. The data show trends in child care choices, proportions of families choosing each type of care over time, and probability of significant change in child care choices. The time period of study is July 1998 to June 2002. The sample size totals 19,386 households: 13,621 households that received cash assistance at some time between May 1996 and June 2002, and 5,765 households that never received cash assistance between May 1996 and June 2002.

Impacts of Eligibility Expansions and Provider Reimbursement Rate Increases on Child Care Subsidy Take-Up Rates, Welfare Use and Work (May 2003)

Scope: This report examines the impact of welfare reform and reform of the child care subsidy program on the likelihood that current and former FIP families would work 20+ hours per week. It also examines the impact of policy changes to the child care subsidy program, apart from welfare reform, on the likelihood that families would use child care subsidies. It focuses on the most powerful area of impact, the population of former cash-recipient families that left welfare to work 20+ hours per week. The data are in terms of probability. The report examines the probability that a typical parent in the sample population (one with median characteristics) will be in one of several categories of employment and welfare status, and the probability that the parent will use child care subsidies. The period of study is Q2 1996 to Q2 2000. The sample is 29,468 female single-parent working-age households.

A Preliminary Look at Employee Turnover at Child Care Centers in Rhode Island (February 2003)

Scope: This report assesses Rhode Island’s employee turnover rates in child care centers during the period Q2 1999 to Q4 2001. It examines a sample of 130-140 single-license child care centers and a sample of almost 30 multiple-license child care centers and school-age programs. It focuses on Providence, Pawtucket, the Balance of the State, and RI. The data show rates of turnover and the pattern of turnover.

Evaluation of Rhode Island’s Starting RIght Program: May 1996-April 2001 (August 2002)

Scope: This report evaluates the impact of Starting RIght policies on the employment and activities of both current and former recipients of cash assistance using child care subsidies, on the take-up rates of child care subsidies, and on the availability of child care. The time period of study is May 1996 (a year before RI welfare reform) to April 2000. The data show fluctuations in probability of leaving welfare for work, rates of entitled families using child care subsidies, and numbers of available slots in relation to take-up rates.

Take-Up Rates and Trade Offs After the Age of Entitlement: Some Thoughts and Empirical Evidence for Child Care Subsidies (March 2002)

Scope: This report develops a model of an eligible family’s decision to take or not to take child care subsidies. It surveys the general literature on take-up rates for social welfare programs and reviews estimates of take-up/service rates in various states, Rhode Island included. It suggests indicators that illustrate the trade offs that governments make when designing and administering a child care subsidy program, prioritizing either the facilitation of parental work by maximizing the number of subsidies available to low-income families, or the provision of more comprehensive child care services by focusing on the type of care received by low-income children. To prioritize both parental work and services for low-income children would require a state’s committed investment in its child care assistance program.