CHILD CARE IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADDRESSING DISPARITIES AND NEED UP206A: Final GIS Project Stephanie Benson March 15, 2011

Significance of Child Care Lack of child care is one of the greatest perceived barriers to women entering educational programs, job training, or the labor market Child care remains underfunded, representing only 0.005% of the total 2011 Department of Heath and Human Services budget; waitlists all too common High quality (center-based) child care can serve as a powerful moderating mechanism to help buffer against some of the many negative consequences of living in poverty 1-4 Disadvantaged children do not thrive as well in poor-quality child care 5-8 Recent research indicates that quality child care and early interventions decrease rates of child maltreatment; proximity to providers is a moderating tool. Within the context of welfare reform, child care has become a social justice imperative, as it’s unconscionable to mandate that mothers return to work without providing their children a safe, enriching environment in which to thrive.

Project Goals Goals:  Assess whether or not capacity of quality of child care at a zip code level meets need for child care  Identify areas and zip codes in greatest need  Locate specific addresses that are ideal for quality child care expansion  Provide policy recommendations to Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). Four percent of CCDF budget must be spent on improving the quality of child care

Midterm Review: Disparities in Child Care Child Care Providers with capacity of 12 or below are the least regulated type of formal child care and are generally observed to be of poorest, or most variable, quality

(Per Zip Code) STATA Scatterplot of Child Care Capacity Against Total Percent of Children Under 5 Per Zip Code

Four Factor Hotspot Analysis: Poverty, Child Maltreatment, % Without HS Degree, % of Zip Code With Children Under 5

Model Used for Hotspot Analysis & Metadata

Reality Check Zip Code is a highly industrial location, likely not well suited to placement of child care facility…. Zip codes and are likely better candidates!

Policy Recommendations  Identified zip codes in greatest need that can benefit most from quality child care; these areas should be targeted for child care expansion  Create synergy between CCDF and schools to provide child care  CCDF should use 4% quality improvement budget to better assess quality of non-center-based child care  Subsidies for informal and unlicensed care are supporting low quality child care provision. Dollars are better spent developing infrastructure for universal pre- school.

GIS Skills  Inset Map: California & LA County  Geocoding: Child Care Providers  Aggregating Attribute Fields: Children under 5 created by aggregating census data  Graduated Point Symbols: Number of children served  Attribute sub-sets Selections: Zip codes aggregated and clipped for hotspot analysis results  Geoprossessing: Clipping zip codes from both larger California shapefile and census tracts  Geocoding: Child Care Providers & Schools)  Modeling: Index for hotspot analysis  Metadata  Measurement/Analysis: School Buffer of.5 mile  Original Data: Child Maltreatment, Education, Children Under 5, Child Care Providers  Charts & Graphs  Hotspot Analysis

Sources Cited 1. Caughy, M., DiPietro, J., & Strobino, D. (1994). Day-Care Participation as a Protective Factor in the Cognitive Development of Low-Income Children. Child Development, 65(2): Hofferth, S. (1999). Child Care, Maternal Employment and Public Policy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 563: Vandell, D. & Wolfe, B. (2000). Child Care Quality: Does it Matter and Does it Need to be Improved? Institute for Research on Poverty, No. 79: Danziger, S., & Danziger, S. (1993). Child poverty and public policy: Toward a comprehensive antipoverty agenda. Daedalus: America's Childhood, 122, Fuller, B., Kagan, S., Caspary, G. & Gauthier, C. (2002). Welfare Reform and Child Care Options for Low-Income Families, The Future of Children, 12(1) Fuller, B., Kagan, S., Loeb, S, & Chang, Y. (2004). Child Care Quality: Centers and home settings that serve poor families. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19: Votruba-Drzal, E., Levine Coley, R. & Chase-Lansdale, L. (2004). Child Care and Low-Income Children’s Development: Direct and Moderated Effects. Child Development, 75(1): 296 – Zazlow, M., Halle, T., Martin, L., Cabrera, N., Calkins, J., Pitzer, L., & Geyelin Margie, N. (2006). Child Outcome Measures in the Study of Child Care Quality. Evaluation Review, 30(5):