This summary highlights key takeaways from a partnership between Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Early Childhood, funded by a grant awarded in 2019 by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration of Children and Families. Explore takeaways from other Child Care Policy Research Partnership Grant teams here.

Many working parents with low incomes rely on subsidized child care to work or attend school. However, few studies have explored the income and employment patterns of parents who use subsidies. Analyzing these patterns could help states better understand what supports parents need to access care and stay employed.

In this study, the research team analyzed the work, school, and subsidy program participation patterns of Illinois families who enrolled in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) in 2019. The team examined how much parents earn and the industries in which they worked when their family started using subsidized child care, as well as whether they were still participating in the program one year later.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• About one in five parents (22 percent) using subsidized child care were employed in the health care and social assistance sectors. Other common sectors included accommodation and food services (12 percent), retail trade (11 percent), and administrative support (11 percent).
• About one in five families (18 percent) had at least one parent in school when they entered a subsidized child care program.
• The majority of families (85 percent) reported a household income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) when they started using subsidized child care. Almost half had incomes below 100 percent of FPL. In 2019, Illinois families were eligible to participate in the program if their income was at or below 185 percent of FPL when they first applied and at or below 200 percent when they reapplied.
• Seven out of ten families (70 percent) were still using subsidized child care after one year. Families who were still using subsidized child care after one year had, on average, stable or increased earnings. Families who were no longer using subsidized child care had lower earnings on average than when they started using subsidized care.

POLICY AND PROGRAM IMPLICATIONS

The analyses in this study highlight how the following interventions could help expand access to child care among families with low incomes: 

• Expand child care options for parents working nontraditional hours. This analysis shows many parents work in industries that often have unpredictable schedules and require evening and weekend work. Expanding the supply of nontraditional and flexible child care hours with policy changes such as enhanced reimbursement rates for providers could help more families using subsidies access child care.
• Increase outreach to families who may not know they’re eligible for subsidies. The research team found that most families using subsidized child care in Illinois had incomes well below the program’s eligibility levels. This pattern suggests that some families who qualify for the program are not participating. Illinois has continued to expand program income eligibility in recent years, so additional outreach could help engage newly eligible families.

METHODOLOGY

For this study, the team looked at families in Illinois who began using subsidized child care in the first quarter of 2019. The study excluded any households that had participated in the subsidy program in the prior two years.

The team linked and analyzed CCAP data from the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Child Care Management System and wage records reported by employers to the state unemployment insurance program. This method allowed the team to document the sectors and industries in which parents worked and the distribution of household income in the first quarter of 2019 and after one year.