Did Illinois’ Response to 2014 CCDBG Reauthorization Increase Equity and Child Care Stability?

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Background
The 2014 reauthorization of the federal Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) strengthened its child development focus, while maintaining parental employment as one of its goals (Henly, & Adams, 2018). As a result, with the aim to improve quality and stability of child care, Illinois’ child care assistance program (CCAP) implemented 1) new training requirements for all subsidized home-based child care (HBCC) providers in 2017 and 2) the extension of the program eligibility period from 6 to 12 months in 2018.
This paper applies an equity-focused lens to study policy impacts on both the demographic composition of subsidy clientele and the duration of subsidy spells among distinct population subgroups. We specifically focus on family characteristics such as child age and race/ethnicity and consider how policy changes may differentially impact population subgroups that disproportionately rely on HBCC (e.g., infants and toddlers; Latinx families). Prior research suggests that more stringent training requirements may make it more difficult for HBCC providers to participate in CCAP without considerable outreach and support (Matthews et al., 2017). Consequently, this may engender unintended consequences of increasing access inequities for these family subgroups. In addition, it is important to test whether the 12-month eligibility period had its intended effect of increasing program duration among all families equally.
Methods
This paper uses 2015-2020 longitudinal CCAP administrative data from Illinois that span 18 months before and after each focal policy change. We estimate two key dependent variables: 1) “share” as a proportion of all subsidized families and 2) program duration / risk of subsidy exit.
In addition to descriptive analyses by pre and post each policy change, we employ a rigorous quasi-experimental design, the interrupted times-series, in our primary analyses to examine whether the proportion of families using subsidies to support infants/toddlers and who identify as Latinx and African American declines after the training requirements were implemented. Next, we leverage a Cox proportional hazard model to test whether the change from a 6- to 12-month eligibility period reduces the risk of exiting the subsidy program among families in different subgroups. We also use Kaplan-Meier survival curves to estimate differences (pre/post) in average program duration. In all models, we control for other relevant policy changes, labor market conditions, and family characteristics to reduce selection bias.
The data are available through a data sharing agreement with Illinois Department of Human Services and Illinois Action for Children. Data analysis is underway, and it will be completed before April, 2021.
Implications
Having equitable access to subsidized child care – with good quality and stability – is critical to healthy development of low-income children as well as parents’ well-being. However, there remains a serious gap in knowledge as to whether the establishment of mandatory training requirements and the extension of eligibility periods (12-month) will better serve “all” families. This paper’s findings, therefore, will provide rigorous empirical evidence on whether 2014 CCDBG reauthorization is meeting its policy goals or making any unintended negative implications on equity that can take a toll on low-income children’s lives.

Authors

• Youngjin Stephanie Hong, University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Julia R. Henly, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Alexander, Illinois Action for Children
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marcia Stoll, Illinois Action for Children
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lorena Lara, Illinois Action for Children
  Non-Presenting Author