Parents of young children routinely search for child care and early education (CCEE). They arrange CCEE so they can work or attend school and to support their child’s learning. Yet searching for and selecting CCEE is often complex. Parents often consider many factors such as their budget and schedule, their personal preferences, and the local CCEE options available to them.

To help families searching for CCEE, the federal government and state and local agencies offer consumer education. Consumer education provides information about CCEE in different ways so that parents can make more informed decisions. To understand whether consumer education information and resources are developed and shared in ways that best meet families’ needs, our team explored how parents search for and select CCEE and the resources they find most useful.

Researchers led virtual focus groups with parents who recently searched for CCEE for a child under the age of six. Focus group participants lived in one of six selected locations in the United States, from large cities to small towns and one U.S. territory.

Primary Goals of Focus Groups

The focus groups were conducted to gather information to better understand:

• When and why parents search for CCEE
• The steps involved in searching for and selecting CCEE
• The supports and resources parents use to search for and make decisions about CCEE given their individual circumstances and local community contexts
• What additional supports parents believe would help them in their search for CCEE

Purpose

This brief was developed as part of the Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education project. It summarizes the experiences that parents shared and the strategies they recommended to help families who are searching for CCEE.

Key Findings and Highlights

Parents reported:

• Having several priorities when searching for and selecting CCEE, with child health and safety, location, and cost mentioned most often.
• Using Google reviews, Facebook comments, Yelp, Google Maps, and state websites to find information on potential CCEE options.
• That physically visiting the CCEE facilities and asking questions in person was the most useful strategy to get good information.
• Valuing recommendations from trusted sources. Although they preferred referrals from family members and other parents with children, they also mentioned valuing government sources.
• The high cost of CCEE and long waitlists were the biggest challenges to selecting their preferred CCEE arrangement.

Methods

This brief is based on an analysis of focus group data from 94 parents and guardians across six sites collected in July-August 2023. Researchers recruited parents in California, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Georgia, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Texas. Parents were required to be at least 18 years old and have a child under age six for whom they had previously searched for CCEE.