Percentage of infants/toddlers with family incomes equal to or below 150 percent of the state median income who are receiving a child care subsidy

Percentage of infants/toddlers with family incomes equal to or below 150 percent of the state median income who are receiving a child care subsidy

The federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the primary source of financing for states’ child care subsidy programs. Within broad federal requirements, states set their own eligibility requirements. Even in the most generous states, however, various barriers (including waiting lists or frozen intake, high family copayments, and low reimbursement rates for care providers) restrict access to these programs. This indicator captures the reach of these child care subsidies among families with incomes equal to or less than 150 percent of the state median income within states.
The denominator is the number of children ages 0-2 with family incomes less than or equal to 150 percent of the state median income. In order to calculate the denominator, we took the following steps: a) obtained the state median incomes for 4-person families by state from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Information Memorandum; b) multiplied those numbers by 1.5 to get 150 percent state median income for 4-person families; c) calculated 150 percent of the state median income for families of different configurations using the conversion provided in a table footnote in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Information Memorandum; d) applied the relevant state median income threshold to each respondent in the 2021 1-year American Community Survey (ACS), based on their state and family size. The denominator covers January 2020 – December 2021.The numerator is the number of children ages 0-2 who received CCDF-funded care in FY 2020 based on estimates from the Administration for Children and Families Office of Child Care (October 2019 – September 2020). When data were accessed Georgia had not yet reported data for FY 2020, while Alaska had submitted 10 months of data, Mississippi had submitted 11 months data, North Carolina had submitted 8 months data, and Ohio had submitted 10 months of data. For the State of Babies Yearbook: 2023 we do not include territories in the national count.

Child Care Aware of America. (2019). 2019 CCDBG state snapshots. https://info.childcareaware.org/ccdbg-2019-state-snapshots

Sources:
Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care. (2022). FY 2020 CCDF Data Tables (Preliminary) https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/data/fy-2020-ccdf-data-tables-preliminary
Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Services. (2021). The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program IM-2021-03 State Median Income Estimates for Optional Use in FY 2021. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/policy-guidance/liheap-im-2021-03-state-median-income-estimates-optional-use-fy-2021
Ruggles, S., Flood, S., Sobek, M., Brockman, D., Cooper, G., Richards, S., and Schouweiler, M. (2023). American Community Survey 2021, one-year estimates. (IPUMS USA: Version 13.0) [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V13.0

Not Ranked
This indicator does not factor into the category's GROW ranking.