Increasing access in the ECE enrollment process: Evidence from an information intervention in New Orleans

Abstract

Enrolling in publicly funded early childhood programs in the U.S. often requires families to navigate a complex, multistep process. Families must pick a program, apply, verify their eligibility, and enroll. Prior research shows that families that complete this process tend to be advantaged relative to eligible non-applicants. In this study, we illuminate the enrollment pathway in New Orleans, showing that many would-be enrollees are lost at each step along the way. Next, we examine the effects of an information intervention that aimed to help families with the “apply” step. We find that a simple text-message intervention increased application rates by 33 %. However, due to leaks at subsequent steps, the intervention had no effect on enrollment rates. We discuss the implications for understanding and improving the enrollment process for publicly funded early childhood programs.