Child care access for families raising children with disabilities

Abstract

Access to affordable, quality child care is a crucial employment support for families and may be particularly salient for families with young children with disabilities. Without access to quality care, parents may not be able to find and maintain employment, increasing the likelihood of economic precarity. We use data from the ECLS-B to examine whether child care arrangements differ by child’s disability status. We find that having an identified disability in childhood, and particularly IEP receipt, is associated with increased likelihood of attending center-based and part-time care as well as lower child care costs. To investigate the extent to which child care access may be impacting maternal employment, we employ a difference-in-difference framework to examine changes in maternal employment rates at kindergarten enrollment by disability status. We find no difference, or possibly a smaller increase, in maternal employment at kindergarten enrollment for mothers of children with disabilities compared to mothers of typically-developing peers. Findings emphasize the importance of understanding the overall policy environment for children with disabilities and their families.