1. Financial Wellbeing of At-Risk Families Receiving Child Care Scholarships
Martha Herndon & Cathy waggoner
Promethean Foundation, Union City, Tennessee
American Association of Family and consumer sciences
108th Conference and Expo
Dallas, TX
2017

2. Introductions

3. Families with Young Children
Families with children from birth to five years of age:
Developmental tasks: (University of Nebraska Extension, 2012)
Adjusting to needs of infant(s) and young children
Establishing home for parent(s), infant(s) and young children
Coping with energy depletion and lack of privacy as parents
Educational attainment of parents with children aged birth to 5 years (Child Trends Data Bank, 2015)
Mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 30.4 to 35.4% between 2007 and 2015, however this varies by ethnic group:
White %
Black %
Hispanic %
Fathers with a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 33.8 to 36.4% , ethnic variation:
White %
Black %
Hispanic %

4. Families with Young Children
Family structure (Pew Research Center, 2015)
There is more diversity in family forms than in the past
Marriage and parenting have become “uncoupled”
There has been a rise in single parent families and changes in two-parent families
More single parent families, more single mothers than fathers
More cohabiting two-parent families
The majority of two-parent families are white, Hispanic, or Asian, less than half of black children are living in two-parent families
More remarriage families
Children of less educated parents are less likely to live in two-parent families
Parents are more educated than in the past and more mothers are in the workforce

6. Family Income
Tremendous variation by geographic area. A two-parent, two-child family:
$49,114 in Morristown, TN
$106,493 in Washington, DC
$63,741 in Des Moines, IA
Housing for this same family will vary from 10% to more than 25% of income
For two-parent, two-child families, the cost of child care exceeds rent in 500 of 618 areas
Low-wage parents will not earn enough to meet basic family needs
Source: Economic Policy Institute, 2015 – Note Family Budget Calculator

7. Basic Family Budgets Family budgets typically consist of:
Housing costs
Food costs
Transportation expenses
Child care expenses
Health care expenses
Other necessities
Clothing, personal care, utilities, household supplies…
Taxes

8. Child Care Costs Cost vary widely by state and geographic location
Costs for single families, especially single parent mothers represent a higher percentage of total income than for two- parent families
The cost of center-based care for 2 children exceeded housing costs for homeowners with a mortgage in 24 states and DC
The cost of center-based infant care exceeded one year’s tuition at a 4-year public college in 30 states and DC
The cost of center-based care for 2 children exceeded the annual transportation cost in every region in the US
The cost of center-based infant care exceeded the average amount families spend on food in every region of the US
Source: Child Care Aware, 2016

9. What puts Children and Families at Risk?
Examples of risk factors
development/
child-outcomes-a-theory-of-change/

10. Risk Factors for Children and Families

11. An Innovative Program for At-Risk Families with Young Children
The Promethean Foundation provides:
Scholarships for at-risk young children to attend high-quality child care from 6 weeks – 5 years
Training for child care teachers
Research documenting results
Advocacy for children
Vision of a wealthy businessman who saw the potential power of early childhood education when he visited the program his grandchildren attended
It is organized as a non-profit foundation and is a project of the Union City Tennessee Rotary Club
The founder, Robert Kirkland, wanted the children in the program to be ready for school and of good character

12. An Innovative Program for At-Risk Families with Young Children
On any given day, more than 250 children in Obion County TN attend child care in 8 different privately-owned child care centers
The children have been identified as being “at-risk” using structured home interviews with parents, which are summarized without identifying information for the Promethean Board of Directors’ vote. The structured interview is conducted in the family home and is scored using a point-based system which leads to a score between Higher scores indicate higher risk.
At the end of May 2017, 1770 applications have been reviewed, have been approved, and 1452 children have been utilized child care scholarships since the program began in 2004.

13. Tennessee

14. Obion County Tennessee
Population 30,945
Median Income $40,683
Population under 18
White 5,770
Black 1,036
Asian
American Indian
Hispanic
Child Poverty 2,139 (31.6% compared to 25.9% for TN and 22% for USA)
Fair Market Rent $702 ($852 TN and $852 USA)
Source: State of the Child in Tennessee, Kids Count Data Center, 2015

15. An Innovative Program for At-Risk Families with Young Children
Research indicates that at-risk children who received and used Promethean Foundation child care scholarships scored significantly higher on kindergarten readiness screenings than a similar control group (Herndon & Waggoner, JFCS, Vol. 107, #4, 2015)
A sample of 27 children who received scholarships and began child care during their first year of life and began kindergarten in fall of 2016 were examined in the current study.
Annual reports completed by parents were the source of the information for the study, therefore, the cautions associated with self-reported information apply to the results.
Data are from
Number of annual reports vary resulting in varying case numbers by year (range 20-27).
Birthdates of children also contribute to variation in case numbers in 2011 and 2016.

16. The Study Characteristics of Children: Male = 15 Female = 12 Ethnicity
White = 9
Black = 10
Biracial = 7
Hispanic = 1
Home Score
Range 60-81
Average = 70.63
Months in Child Care
Range months
Average = months (4.86 years)
Some went to Pre-K and others did not
Average Kindergarten Screening Score (Brigance III K&1)
60.93 (range , 24 cases)
Average for all Kindergarten screenings in county was 72.34

17. Housing Type

18. Housing Ownership

19. Parents’ Education
Mothers
Fathers

20. Income by Category

21. Annual Household Income

22. Family Structure

23. Parents Working

24. Summary
Families lived in homes more often than apartments, trailers, and duplexes.
Most parents rented, a few had mortgages or lived free with someone else, only one family owned a home and this was a mother living in her father’s home.
More mothers had a high school education than fathers, but more fathers had 4-year degrees than mothers.
Family incomes increased by $ during the five early childhood years.
Most families were single parents (1 single father, the rest were single mothers) or living with someone else (boyfriend or parent). Only a few were married.
More mothers worked than fathers.
This study resulted in revision of our annual update format to include more specific and detailed information.
The study illustrates the complexity of family life among young at-risk children.

25. How Can We Support At-Risk Families with Young Children?

26. Summary and Conclusion
In this study of a small sample of families, the most compelling result is that the average annual income of families increased. This was small increase, which is roughly equivalent to the cost of child care for one year.
The method by which we collect annual update information from parents has been revised to include more specific information as a result of the study.
We believe that scholarships for child care help families.