Uses two sources of representative data, the 2005 National Household Education Survey and the 2007 RAND California Preschool Study, to describe child care and early learning arrangements for the approximately 2.8 million California children ages 0 to 5 who are younger than the age at which they would enter kindergarten.

The Use of Early Care and Education by California Families

Lynn A. Karoly

Expert InsightsPublished Feb 28, 2012

Using two sources of representative data: the 2005 National Household Education Survey and the 2007 RAND California Preschool Study, this paper describes child care and early learning arrangements for the approximately 2.8 million California children ages 0 to 5 who are younger than the age at which they would enter kindergarten. The focus is on nonparental care arrangements, whether they occur in a home-based or center-based setting. The paper also uses administrative data as of 2008 to calculate participation in the various publicly subsidized programs available to qualifying children and their families.

Key Takeaways

A Majority of California Children Under Age Five Are in Child Care or Early Learning Programs on a Regular Basis

  • Just under half of infants and toddlers and 75 to 80 percent of preschool-age children are cared for by someone other than their parents on a regular basis before they enter kindergarten.
  • The modal care for infants and toddlers is care by a relative in a home-based setting, but most preschoolers are cared for in a center-based setting, at least part-time.

Subsidized Programs Do Not Reach All Eligible Children, but Most Subsidized Care Is Delivered in Licensed Settings

  • California has an array of federal- and state-funded programs that subsidized the costs of care for about 355,000 children as of 2008, primarily those in families with low income. In that year, these programs served about 5 percent of the state's infants and toddlers, 18 percent of three-year-olds, and 34 percent of four-year-olds.
  • Given funding levels as of 2008-2009, the existing subsidized programs were not able to serve the approximately 53 percent of children under age 5 who would have qualified on the basis of family income. The estimated share of eligible children served ranges from 8 percent of infants and toddlers to 34 percent of three-year-olds and 65 percent of four-year-olds.
  • Most California children in subsidized care are in licensed settings. Among children under age 5, infants and toddlers are more likely to be in license-exempt settings compared with three- and four-year-olds.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2012
  • Pages: 9
  • Document Number: OP-356-PF

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Karoly, Lynn A., The Use of Early Care and Education by California Families. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2012. https://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP356.html.
BibTeX RIS

The research described in this report was performed under the auspices of RAND Labor and Population

This publication is part of the RAND occasional paper series. RAND occasional papers were products of RAND from 2003 to 2013 that included informed perspectives on a timely policy issue, discussions of new research methodologies, essays, papers presented at a conference, and summaries of work in progress.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.