Estimating the Size and Components of the U.S. Child Care Workforce and Caregiving Population Key Findings from the Child Care Wo r k f o rce Estimate ( Preliminary Re p o rt ) May 2002 Center for the Child Care Human Services Policy Center, Workforce, U n i versity of Wa s h i n g t o n , Washington, D.C. Seattle, Wa s h i n g t o n Alice Burt o n R i c h a rd N. Brandon, Ph.D. M a rcy Whitebook, Ph.D. Erin Maher, Ph.D. M a rci Yo u n g Dan Bellm Claudia Wa y n e © 2002 Center for the Child Care Wo r k f o rce and Human Services Policy Center Center for the Child Care Wo r k f o rc e The Center for the Child Care Workforce 733 15th St reet, N.W., Suite 1037 The Center for the Child Care Wo r k f o rc e , Washington, DC 20005 founded in 1978 as the Child Care Employe e (202) 737-7700 Project, is a nonprofit re s e a rch and education o rganization whose mission is to improve the Human Se rvices Policy Center quality of child care services by improv i n g Evans School of Public Affairs child care jobsÐÐupgrading the compensa- B ox 353060 tion, working conditions and training of child U n i versity of Wa s h i n g t o n c a re teachers and family child care prov i d e r s . Seattle, WA 98195 (206) 543-8483 Human Services Policy Center The mission of the Human Services Po l i c y This re p o rt was made possible by grant num- Center (HSPC) at the University of ber 90YE0024 from the Child Care Bure a u , Wa s h i n g t o n’s Daniel J. Evans School of Pu b l i c A d m i n i s t ration on Children, Youth and Affairs is to improve the well-being of chil- Families, U.S. Department of Health and d ren and families by promoting collabora t i ve Human Services. The contents are solely the and pre ve n t i ve approaches to service acro s s responsibility of the authors and do not re p- the bounds of professions, disciplines, and resent the official views of the funding s e rvice organizations. HSPC conducts quanti- a g e n c y, nor does publication in any way con- t a t i ve re s e a rch in a wide range of child and stitute an endorsement by the funding agency. family issues, considering the re l a t i o n s h i p s among child well-being, financing policy and Special thanks to the members of our Pro j e c t w o r k f o rce issues, and seeks to improve the Advisory Group for their insightful comments understanding of policy leaders and the gen- on earlier drafts of this re p o rt: Jare d e ral public. Bernstein, Ph.D., Jan Brown, Hedy Chang, Alice Walker Duff, Ro b e rt French, Anne Mitchell, and Diana Pe a rce, Ph.D. We also a p p reciate the invaluable re s e a rch assistance of Angela Chen and Shelley DeWys at the Human Services Policy Center, and Jeannette A n t o n g i o rgi at the Center for the Child Care Wo r k f o rc e . Table of Contents Page 1 Exe c u t i ve Summary 2 4 C h a racteristics of the U.S. Child Care Wo r k f o rc e 5 I n t ro d u c t i o n 2 7 Implications of Findings 6 The Need for Better Information on the U.S. Child Care Wo r k f o rc e 3 1 Next Steps: Se c o n d - Year Re s e a rch A c t i v i t i e s 8 Limitations of Existing Data Sourc e s 3 3 A p p e n d i c e s 10 Who is Included in the Child Care A. Data Sources and Methodology Wo r k f o rc e ? B. Patterns of U.S. Child Care Usage 12 A Demand-Based Estimate of the From Which Wo r k f o rce Estimates are Child Care Wo r k f o rc e D e r i ve d 1 5 Defining Types of Care and Job C. Bibliography and Works Cited Re s p o n s i b i l i t i e s 1 6 Job Tu r n over and Occupational Tu r n ove r 17 Major Findings 1. The Size of the U.S. Caregiving Population for Children Ages 0-5 2. Comparison of Demand-Based Estimates to Census Data 3. The Paid U.S. Child Care Wo r k f o rce for Children Ages 0-5, by Job Re s p o n s i b i l i t y 4. The Size of the Paid U.S. Child C a re Wo r k f o rce and Unpaid C a regiving Population Caring for C h i l d ren with Selected Chara c t e r i s t i c s 1 Executive Summary In response to the rising demand for data on sumers (parents) describe their current use of the child care1 w o r k f o rce, the Center for the child care services and child:adult ratios for Child Care Wo r k f o rce (CCW) and the Human this age gro u p. We then take into account the S e rvices Policy Center (HSPC) at the Unive r s i t y best available data on the supply of child of Washington have embarked on a two-ye a r c a re workers and on such industry chara c t e r- re s e a rch project to develop a framework and istics as turnove r. Our effort has been not methodology for quantifying the size and only to provide more complete estimates of c h a racteristics of the U.S. child care work- the size and characteristics of this workforc e , f o rce much more completely than has been but also to build a new vocabulary for done before. Our focus is on the workforc e describing the workforce, conceptualizing s e rving children ages 0 through 5 (exc l u d i n g and categorizing it more clearly than has c h i l d ren enrolled in kinderg a rten). been done before. Policy makers and organizations are turning For our estimates of the child care workforc e , i n c reased attention to solving child care we have included: staffing problems Ð not only ensuring ade- quate staffing to meet families’ c u r rent and ¥ The teaching staff of center-based programs, f u t u re needs for services, but deve l o p i n g including Head St a rt pro g rams, pre - a p p ropriate training pro g rams, as well as local, k i n d e rg a rten pro g rams, nursery schools, state and national initiatives to improve the and community-based private and public compensation and retention of the child care child care centers; w o r k f o rce. As they do so, they need complete counts of the size and character of the pres- ¥ Family child care providers caring for unrel a t e d ent workforce, and longer-range estima t e s o f c h i l d ren in their own homes; the demand for child care of differe n t t y p e s that will factor in not only growth in the pro- ¥ Paid non-re l a t i ves caring for children on a fession but high rates of occupational turnover. regular basis in the child’s home, such as nannies and other paid in-home care g i ve r s ; The estimation model developed for the pro j- ect is a “demand-based” approach, drawing ¥ Paid re l a t i ves caring for children on a on national data sets in which child care con- regular basis.2 1 The term “child care” is used in this rep o r t as a generic term to encompass the many types of early care and education pro g r ams serving children ages 0-5 Ð including such center-based prog r ams as nursery schools, pre- k i n d e rg a rt e n p ro g rams, Head St a rt, and public and private child care centers, and such home-based serv i c e s as family child care and care by re l a t i ves or other non-parental care g i ve r s . 2 We have excluded office workers and other non-teaching staff at child care centers or family child care pro g ra m s and volunteers and other unpaid providers, including re l a t i ves (other than parents) and non-re l a t i ve s . 1 Key Findings Paid care g i vers for children ages 0 through 5 a re the primary focus of the study.