Facts In Action

The Department of Economics at Wellesley College released a study in November 2000, which examined changes in the availability, quality, and cost of child care in Massachusetts between 1997 and 1999, comparing programs and providers that accept subsidized child care vouchers with programs and providers that do not. Subsidized care vouchers were funded with state dollars and funds coming to Massachusetts from the federal Child Care and Development Fund.

The study found that in the regions surveyed:

• 41% of licensed providers participated in the subsidized child care program; and

• 50% of voucher recipients used center-based child care, while the other 50% equally participated in family child care and informal care.

The researchers also looked at licensed child care capacity in Massachusetts, using information obtained from the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services and five resource and referral agencies. They report that in 1999, there were an estimated 20 available child care slots per 100 children under the age of 11 years old in Massachusetts (191,993 family child care, center-based, and school-age program slots for an estimated total of 965,725 children). Over the period of the study, the statewide number of slots available at family child care homes increased by 26%, while the increase in number of slots for center-based programs was only 7%. In addition, the licensed capacity for school-age programs increased by almost 50%.

Source:
Changes in the Availability, Quality and Price of Child Care in Massachusetts Between 1997 and 1999, R. Witt, M. Queralt, and A.D. Witte, Working Paper 2000-12, November, 2000.

For more information:
contact the Wellesley Child Care Research Partnership, Department of Economics, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 02581-8203, call (781) 283-2163, or look on-line at www.wellesley.edu/Economics/partner/.

Facts in Action, April 2001