Early Child Care Settings and Factors Influencing the Parental Enrollment Process: Insights From the Maternal Primary Caregivers of Children Attending Three Urban, High-Poverty Centers

• In Event: 60.084 - Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: 60.084-15 - Protagonists and Provocations in the Early Years

Abstract

Every day in the U.S., millions of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods attend early childcare settings and arrangements. When those settings are high quality, early childhood education can produce both short and long term benefits (August & Hakuta, 1997; Barnett, 1995; Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997; Entwisle & Alexander, 1993; Korenman, Miller, & Sjaastad, 1995; McLoyd, 1998; Wertheimer & Croan, 2003; Zill, 1999). Early childhood education, however, is neither a formalized nor mandatory educational level, which gives parents significant latitude in deciding when and where to enroll their children. This research study presents the findings of a qualitative, interview-based study that explored what maternal primary caregivers were influenced by when they enrolled children of color in high-poverty urban childcare centers.

Author

• Kaitlin Kelly Moran, School District of Philadelphia