A Guide for Policymakers: How to Make Smart Investments in a Fragmented Child Care System

Washington, DC – The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Early Childhood Initiative recently released an analysis of our nation’s birth to age five early care and education system, including the child care market, Head Start, and state Pre-K programs, with recommendations on how to improve our existing fragmented child care system.

A Cohesive Vision for Child Care, Head Start and Pre-K also issues a stark warning for the Biden administration and other policymakers proposing universal Pre-K programs as the sole solution to solve our nation’s child care crisis—doing so could destabilize the system and potentially bankrupt child care providers. Because of staffing ratios, it costs more to provide care for infants and toddlers, and less to operate a preschool classroom.

Businesses in the child care market often offset the financial losses from operating infant and toddler classrooms by serving more preschool-aged children. With a federal push for universal Pre-K, many child care providers may be forced to close because they simply cannot survive on income from parents of infants and toddlers alone, or parents will be forced to pay even higher rates. Both are severe unintended consequences policymakers must think through.

In addition, the report finds that our country’s patchwork and siloed approach to early care and education programs creates obstacles for families to access services and may lead to children—often those who are already the most vulnerable—missing out on vital supports. For example, multiple federal agencies operate early care and education programs. It is rare that states house child care, food assistance for child care programs, and the state’s Pre-K program under the same agency, in fact it only happens in 12 states. When families must apply to multiple programs, housed at different agencies with different eligibility criteria, they are frequently asked to fill out duplicative paperwork. Providers also must jump through bureaucratic hoops to get the funding and resources they need. Instead of filling out form after form, some parents and providers get frustrated and give up. Integration and alignment can be essential to the everyday lives of families with young children who too often have trouble determining what services they might be eligible for and how to access them.

The report includes four recommendations for policymakers as they debate structural changes to our nation’s early care and education system:

• To preserve parent choice, early care and education programs must be offered in a variety of community-based settings, including centers, family child care homes, and faith-based providers.
• To reduce duplication, inconsistencies, and overlap, any federal funding should be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination and collaboration with other federal agencies wherever appropriate.
• To ensure programs support the needs of working families, policymakers must pair funding with local flexibility and innovation.
• To ensure an adequate supply of care, especially for infants and toddlers, investments must recognize and support the child care business model.

“High-quality child care is expensive, but the investment supports a skilled workforce for the future, decreases spending on social services, and yields robust returns,” said BPC Director of the Early Childhood Initiative Linda K. Smith. “Too many children face inequities in their earliest years that set them behind their peers and may prevent them from ever catching up. Making smart investments in child care will help ensure that all children have an opportunity for a high-quality early childhood environment, putting them on a path for success.”

“Expanding Pre-K aligned with the public school system will not be a panacea for children and families,” the report concludes. “If our country is to truly support working parents and the healthy development of children, we must seek ways to better synchronize the entire early care and education system so that it works better for all involved.”

“Some interesting research that our team has been working on shows that a majority of parents say if public Pre-K were co-located in a child care programs that offered longer hours of care, it would be a better option for their family,” Smith. “We’re excited to release this data in the next few weeks and will be in touch with policymakers to let them know what parents’ preferences are.”

Join BPC’s Early Childhood team June 22 for a virtual panel discussion breaking down the team’s latest survey data.