Pandemic Child Care Relief Funds Reduced Closures of Black-Owned Home-Based Child Care Programs

Source: Authors’ calculations based on the National Survey of Early Care and Education 2019 Home-Based Survey, and the COVID-19 Wave 1 home-based follow-up survey

Note: Our analyses included only listed home-based providers, which are licensed or registered programs. The final analytic model included several covariates: provider age, marital status (married/partnered as reference group), risk for severe COVID-19 illness among self or household members (low risk as reference group), years intending to stay in the field (10+ years as the reference group), number of state CCDF relief policies enacted (scale of 0 – 3 in state where educator resided), receipt of other state relief or federal loans (receipt as the reference group).

Discussion

Our findings add to the body of evidence regarding the stabilizing role of COVID-19 relief funding. State grants were particularly helpful, as they did not have to be paid back and offered providers discretion in spending. Our findings confirm that the protective effects of emergency funding highlighted in other studies extended to Black-owned HBCC programs.

States and communities are currently considering a variety of policies to support the financial well-being of the child care workforce. These policies include categorical eligibility for child care subsidies, student loan relief, access to retirement and health care benefits, reduced administrative burdens related to child care subsidy acceptance and within housing regulations, and wage/salary enhancement initiatives. To ensure the efficacy of such policies, ECE policy, program, and systems leaders should include, review, and use research that incorporates analyses of characteristics like race and ethnicity that may play a role in the success of child care and early education policy design and implementation. In addition, they should consider including the voices of Black HBCC owners and educators to ensure that policies designed to support them are desired, accessible, and relevant to their setting.