Answering this question can identify patterns in child care subsidy usage which can be helpful in targeting outreach and recruitment efforts for child care subsidy programs as well as identifying barriers to child care subsidy access. To answer this question, link child level and family level information to create a dataset that can be filtered by eligibility status for the CCEE subsidy of interest. Identify children who are eligible to receive a subsidy and then determine which of those children are known to receive a subsidy.
What percent of subsidy eligible enrolled children receive a child care subsidy?
Description
General Analysis Recommendation
Identify Children Eligible to Receive the Subsidy of Interest
Subsidy eligibility varies based on the type of subsidy and the state-determined qualifying factors. A variety of Child Level and Family Level data elements can be used to determine a child’s eligibility based on state guidelines, such as Family Income, Number of People in Family, Parent Employment Status, or Primary Type of Disability. To accurately compute if children are subsidy eligible, consult the state’s eligibility criteria for child care subsidies. Depending on how complex the eligibility criteria are, coding the data or constructing new variables that reference extant data elements may be a better alternative to filtering the data set.
Identify Children Receiving the Subsidy of Interest
The Child Level data element Financial Support Type specifies the type of subsidized care received by children. The field names for this data element include Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) among other types of subsidies. The option set is “Yes” or “No” for each subsidy type.
Calculate the Percent of Subsidy Eligible Children Receiving the Subsidy of Interest
To find the percent for this question, first calculate the total number of children in the state who are subsidy eligible by counting Child ID for all children that meet the state specific eligibility criteria. Then, code the data such that any child who has a response of “Yes” to one of the fields in the Financial Support Type data element is given a numeric value of “1” and all other children are given a numeric value of “0”. To find the percent, divide the number of children who are receiving any financial support by the total number of children who are subsidy eligible and multiply by 100. Further analysis may be conducted using the Child Level data element Reason Receiving Subsidy. This data element identifies the reason that makes a subsidy-receiving child eligible for a child care subsidy. This data element includes “Employment”, “Training/Education” and “Protective Services”, among others, in the option set. Counting the Child ID for each subsidy receiving child in each option set category can provide further insight on eligibility.