Insights on Non-Traditional Hour Care from Attendance Records and Provider Survey

• In Event: Nontraditional hour child care provision, practices, and policies: Research findings on provider perspectives across states

Abstract

Non-traditional hour (NTH) child care is required for many parents to work or attend educational programs but can be difficult to find. Who is providing care at those times (before 7 AM, after 6 PM, overnight, or on the weekends), and how much of this type of care is needed? Building on the work of Flores, Henley, and others, the Public Policy Associates team confirmed that NTH care is more often provided by friend, family, and neighbors than licensed providers. Earlier results from Public Policy Associates’ study also showed that license-exempt providers (LEPs) in Michigan care for a large portion of school-aged children with scholarships (2025), more than was previously understood. With our 2026 survey of over 500 license-exempt providers and over 200 licensed family home providers, the research team found that 59% of LEPs care for children on the weekends, compared to 25% of the responding FCCs; 63% of LEPs are delivering late evening care, compared to 36% of FCCs; and 34% of LEPs have children in their care overnight, compared to 21% of FCCs. This is important evidence of the significant role being played by an underrecognized group of providers in the early care and education system, and the demand for this type of care among families with low incomes.

The frequency of non-traditional hour care has been hard to gauge with precision, however. By extracting the non-traditional hours from attendance sheets kept by providers for the Michigan Child Development and Care Scholarship Program, we are determining how much and when the participating families need this type of care. So that large families are not overrepresented, for each family using either an LEP or an FCC, we randomly selected a focal child with CDC Scholarship payments. The data are extracted from over 6,000 PDFs per pay period using a model developed by the team, which is proving effective and results in few errors (based on manual audits of a 5% sample of the extracted data). This represents an efficient approach to pulling data together for analysis from files that are otherwise impractical to use for research purposes. In addition, by examining data from two periods (one winter and one summer pay period), we are comparing how the need for NTH care may change seasonally.

For this panel, we will share new results from the attendance records analysis, along with key findings obtained from the provider survey. We anticipate that the results will add to the existing limited knowledge about the amount of NTH care delivered by license-exempt providers, as well as offer insights into how agencies can support NTH care supply by through strategic policies and investments.

Author

• Colleen E. Graber, Public Policy Associates
  Presenting Author