Child Care Centers, Child Care Subsidies, and Faith-Based Organizations

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Faith-based organizations (FBOs) undisputedly play an important role in the provision and support of child care services. However, few recent studies have quantified the nature and extent of this role.¹ Further, although Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) rules have always allowed parents with child care vouchers to choose faith-based child care programs, few studies have examined how many faith-based providers participate in the voucher subsidy system and whether they face any barriers to participation.

This fact sheet presents a preliminary analysis examining these issues. With the support of the Child Care Bureau in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Urban Institute is conducting a comprehensive study of child care providers and the subsidy system in five counties across four states.² The results presented below rely on data collected for the comprehensive study, including a phone survey with a random sample of child care centers that serve children age 5 and under for at least 40 hours a week (conducted in 2003), as well as qualitative data on subsidy policies, implementation practices, and the experiences of providers with the subsidy system.³ Final results from this project are forthcoming.

This fact sheet focuses on two issues in the five focal counties: the role of FBOs in the provision of center-based child care services, and whether faith-affiliated child care providers appear to face any barriers to participating in the CCDF. These findings accurately describe a range of conditions found in the focal counties. However, there are several caveats to consider when interpreting the results. First, these findings are preliminary. Second, although the survey samples are representative of the population of child care centers in each of the five counties, the results from each county are not representative of the state within which it is located or of the nation as a whole. Finally, population estimates based on a sample are always subject to uncertainty owing to sampling error. In these analyses, the range within which we expect the actual population proportion to fall is typically plus or minus 6 to 8 percentage points (at a 90% confidence level). In one county, the sampling error is smaller, generally plus or minus 3 percentage points.⁴

Notes from this section

1 The Brookings Institution, "The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Child Care." Transcript from Sacred Places, Civic Purposes forum, Washington, D.C., March 14, 2001.

2 The study counties are Jefferson, AL; Monterey and San Diego, CA; Hudson, NJ; and King, WA.

3 The larger study surveyed both centers and family child care homes, though the analysis presented here is only for child care centers. For center directors, the survey had a sample size of 407 and a response rate of approximately 82 percent. Additional information on study methodology will be available in forthcoming reports.

4 More precise estimates are found in counties with large sample sizes relative to the population size and on variables that have estimates closer to 0 or 100%, rather than 50%.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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