Patterns of child care subsidy receipt and the stability of child care

Abstract

Abstract Previous studies have found that child care subsidy spells are often short and that multiple spells are common. Such instability in subsidy use may lead to instability in child care arrangements, yet we have little evidence of the relationship between them. This article focuses on a cohort of young children in Wisconsin and follows their patterns of the receipt of child care subsidies and subsidized care arrangements up until the age of 5. The study estimates the extent to which the patterns of subsidy use is associated with the stability of subsidized child care arrangements. It also examines variation in the degree of instability in the receipt of child care subsidies and subsidized care arrangements and factors related to such variation. The study finds a positive association between the number of subsidy-receipt spells and the number of subsidized child care providers that children experience. The study also finds that children from the most disadvantaged families are the ones who experience the highest degree of instability of care and subsidy receipt.