Research Study: Child Care Providers Responding to COVID-19

Study Overview

This study of Illinois child care providers assesses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child care programs as well as providers’ livelihood and wellbeing. The study focuses on 1) providers’ engagement with the roll-out of new federal and state emergency assistance and 2) changes to operational practices and strategies for supporting children and families during times of emergency. The study includes interviews and surveys conducted with center directors, licensed home providers, and license-exempt family friend and neighbor providers in Cook County, which includes Chicago, and a 6-county region in downstate Illinois that includes Champaign-Urbana.

Collaborators

This research is a collaboration between the University of Chicago and Illinois Action for Children
Co-Principal Investigators: Julia Henly, PhD and David Alexander, PhD
Support from: Robert Hughes, PhD and Brenda Eastham of the Child Care Resource Service (CCRS).

Funding

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Study Results and Publications

Research Brief

Covid-19 Relief to the Child Care Industry: Perspectives from Child Care Directors and Owners Seeking Support

Summary: During the first year of the pandemic, we interviewed 76 licensed family child care providers and center directors in Illinois. Most programs in our study received at least one form of pandemic-related assistance, including three main programs of focus 1) Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) attendande waivers, 2) the Child Care Restoration Grant (CCRG), and 3) the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Our findings indicate that these programs were critical for child care programs’ survival during the pandemic, despite ongoing financial instability. Particularly with the CCAP waivers and CCRG, which were Illinois-specific programs, providers indicated less burden with applications as compared to prior experiences accessing aid. Given providers’ uptake and reliance on this emergency aid and their relatively positive experiences accessing it, we conclude that it is critical for states to identify ways to translate emergency funds and processes for streamlining access into permanent investments with ambitious goals to not just stabilize, but greatly improve our child care and early education infrastructure moving forward.

Full research brief

Research Brief

Impact of COVID-19 on Child Care Programming and Practices

Summary: Our interviews with 76 licensed family child care providers and center directors in Illinois indicated that providers and children in their care generally adapted well to new public health guidelines during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, though challenges included changes to space and staffing to reduce exposures, supporting children during remote learning, and financial challenges of meeting safety guidelines. Providers indicated that the federal and state stimulus dollars designed to support them in adapting to safety guidelines were appreciated, but insufficient to address the severity of their financial needs, especially given that many providers already faced financial insecurity and staff shortages before the pandemic began. Many providers stepped up to care for school-aged children during school closures, providing technical support for children learning remotely and restructuring their own spaces and programs to accommodate these additional children—a support that many providers felt was not adequately acknowledged or supported by the State. Moving forward, we conclude that programs’ well-being requires stable public funding and adequate support to both help programs recover and to stabilize the industry beyond the pandemic.

Full research brief

Research Report

Subsidized Child Care in Illinois during the Pandemic and Recovery: Untangling Equity in Complex Change

Summary: We analyzed administrative data records to better understand how the pandemic impacted the composition of licensed and license-exempt child care providers across Illinois during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper focuses an equity lens on how the pandemic and Illinois’ policy response affected child care in Illinois’ child care subsidy program (CCAP) for low-income families. It looks at whether the pandemic and Illinois policy affected child care subsectors and demographic groups unevenly, considering three subsectors – center-based child care, licensed home-based care and license-exempt (family, friend and neighbor or FFN) home-based care. Results indicate that FFN provider participation in CCAP dropped more slowly than center and licensed home-based child care at the beginning of the pandemic, but also that it remained low for much longer and has recovered only partially. This slow recovery is likely due to new federal health and safety training requirements for non-relative FFN providers, which resulted in drops in CCAP participation. This decline is especially concerning because it appears to have disproportionately impacted CCAP participation among Black and Latinx children (compared to white children) and children living in poverty. As poverty numbers declined during the pandemic recovery period, fewer children were eligible for CCAP, but also fewer of those eligible used it. CCAP participation among infants (vs. older children) and urban (vs. rural) children droped steeply early in the pandemic. At last analysis, however, both groups appear to have fully recovered to pre-pandemic CCAP levels, although one comparison group, rural children, has a higher participation level significantly above their pre-pandemic level.

Full research report coming soon

Research Article

“I would prefer that they would be with me”: Motivations, roles, and financial realities of informal child care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary: We conducted interviews and surveys with 19 License-exempt Family, Friend and Neighbor providers in Cook County, IL in May-October, 2022 to add to our understanding of how child care providers responded to and were impacted by the pandemic.

Full research article coming soon