Child Care

Many children spend time with a child care provider other than their parents. Alternative child care arrangements are particularly important for children ages 3–5 who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten and whose mothers are employed. Nonparental care can be provided in the home by relatives or nonrelatives or can be center-based care.

Indicator FAM3.A: Percentage of children ages 3–5, not yet enrolled in kindergarten with employed mothers, by type of primary care arrangement, selected years 1995–2019
Indicator FAM3.A: Percentage of children ages 3–5, not yet enrolled in kindergarten with employed mothers, by type of primary care arrangement, selected years 1995–2019

a Center-based arrangements include day care centers, Head Start programs, preschools, prekindergartens, and other early childhood programs.

b Children who spent an equal number of hours per week in multiple nonparental care arrangements.

NOTE: Excludes children living in households with no mother or female guardian present. A child's nonparental primary care arrangement is the regular nonparental care arrangement or early childhood education program in which the child spent the most time per week. Prior to 2012, National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) surveys were administered by telephone with an interviewer. NHES:2012 used self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaires that were mailed to respondents. For NHES:2016, all sampled households received initial contact by mail. While the majority of respondents completed paper questionnaires, a small sample of cases were part of a web experiment with mailed invitations to complete the survey online. For NHES:2019, the majority of data were collected using a web-based survey instrument that respondents accessed with credentials they received in a mailed invitation. Paper surveys were used for nonresponse follow-up and for a small experiment. Measurable differences in estimates between 2012, 2016, 2019, and prior years could reflect actual changes in the population, or the changes could be due to the mode change.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Surveys Program.

  • In 2019, among children ages 3–511 who had employed mothers, 58% received center-based care12 as their primary care arrangement.13 This percentage was higher than the corresponding percentages whose primary care arrangements were relative care (17%), home-based nonrelative care (10%), multiple nonparental care arrangements for equal amounts of time (2%), or only parental care (14%).
  • For children ages 3–5 with employed mothers, a higher percentage in 2019 than in 1995 primarily received center-based care (58% versus 47%), while lower percentages in 2019 than in 1995 primarily received home-based nonrelative care (10% versus 20%) or relative care (17% versus 20%). There was no measurable difference between 1995 and 2019 in the percentages of children who had multiple nonparental care arrangements for equal amounts of time or only parental care as their primary care arrangement.

Indicator FAM3.B: Percentage of children ages 3–5, not yet enrolled in kindergarten with employed mothers, in center-based care arrangements for any amount of time by poverty status, selected years 1995–2019
Indicator FAM3.B: Percentage of children ages 3–5, not yet enrolled in kindergarten with employed mothers, in center-based care arrangements for any amount of time by poverty status, selected years 1995–2019

NOTE: Excludes children living in households with no mother or female guardian present. Center-based programs included day care centers, prekindergartens, nursery schools, Head Start programs, and other early childhood education programs. Prior to 2012, National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) surveys were administered via telephone with an interviewer. NHES:2012 used self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaires that were mailed to respondents. For NHES:2016, all sampled households received initial contact by mail. While the majority of respondents completed paper questionnaires, a small sample of cases were part of a web experiment with mailed invitations to complete the survey online. For NHES:2019, the majority of data were collected using a web-based survey instrument that respondents accessed with credentials they received in a mailed invitation. Paper surveys were used for nonresponse follow-up and for a small experiment. Measurable differences in estimates between 2012, 2016, 2019, and prior years could reflect actual changes in the population, or the changes could be due to the mode change.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Surveys Program.

  • In 2019, among children ages 3–5 with employed mothers, 69% were enrolled in center-based care for any amount of time. This percentage was higher than the corresponding percentage in 1995 (61%) but not measurably different from the percentage in 2016 (70%).
  • In 2019, among children ages 3–5 with employed mothers, the percentage who were enrolled in center-based care was higher for those whose families had incomes at 200% or more of the poverty level (76%) than for those whose families had incomes below 100% of the poverty level (63%) and those whose families had incomes between 100% and 199% of the poverty level (52%).
  • The percentage of children who were enrolled in center-based care was higher in 2019 than in 1995 for those whose families had incomes at 200% or more of the poverty level (76% versus 67%); for children whose families had incomes below 100% of the poverty level or between 100% and 199% of the poverty level, there was no measurable difference between 1995 and 2019 in the percentage who were enrolled in center-based care.
  • Among children ages 3–5 with employed mothers, the percentage who were enrolled in center-based care in 2019 was higher for White, non-Hispanic children (75%) than for Hispanic children (64%). There were no measurable differences in the percentages of children enrolled in center-based care among other racial or ethnic groups.

    • table icon FAM3A HTML Table FAM3B HTML Table

    11 Throughout indicators FAM3.A and FAM3.B, "children ages 3–5" refers to children in the age group who were not yet enrolled in kindergarten.

    12 Center-based arrangements include day care centers, Head Start programs, preschools, prekindergartens, and other early childhood programs.

    13 A child's primary care arrangement is classified into five groups based on the type of arrangement in which the child spent the most time per week: (1) center-based care, (2) relative care, (3) home-based nonrelative care, (4) multiple arrangements (i.e., children who spent an equal amount of time in each of two or more types of arrangements), and (5) parental care only (i.e., children who had no regularly scheduled care arrangement and received care only from their parent[s]).

Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics

Explore

More Information

Contact