Healthy Development Measurement Toolkit

Indicator PI.1.b Unmet need for child care subsidies

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Data Source

San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council. 2007 Child Care Needs Assessment. Accessed on March 14, 2008: http://sfcpac.org/publications-reports

Map prepared by City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, Environmental Health Section using ArcGIS software.

Map and table data are presented by zip code. Detailed information regarding geographic units of analysis, their definitions, and their boundaries can be found in the HDMT at the following links:

http://www.thehdmt.org/etc/Geographic_Units_of_Analysis.pdf

http://www.thehdmt.org/data_map_methods.php

Explanation and Limitations

According to the San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council's (CPAC) 2007 Needs Assessment, "There are multiple funding streams for public child care subsidies, which originate at the federal, state and local levels... Subsidy programs have a variety of eligibility requirements depending upon their intent. There are two primary types of child care subsidies—those attached to a facility (generally center contractors) and vouchers. Center subsidies are paid at various rates, depending on the subsidy streams. California Department of Education (CDE) center contracts require a variety of deliverables from contracted providers, yet use a Standardized Reimbursement Rate (SRR) that pays far below the Regional Market Rate (RMR). Nonetheless, center contracts often anchor providers in low-income neighborhoods, thus increasing access to care for families in those neighborhoods. Vouchers are flexible in that they allow families to choose care in licensed centers, licensed family child care, and, in most voucher subsidy programs, license-exempt care." (Accessed on September 11, 2009:  http://sfcpac.org/publications-reports)  Starting in 1999, CPAC began working to streamline and improve parental access to these various, complicated child care subsidies.  Detailed descriptions of the development and implementation of Centralized Eligibility Lists are available in the 2007 Needs Assessment.

The number of children in families that earn less than 75% of the State Median Income was obtained by the Child Care Planning and Advisory Council by contracting with the Census Bureau for a custom run of data for children at 250% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). 75% of the State Median Income correlates approximately to 250% of the FPL. Census bureau rounding techniques and population growth on Treasure Island resulted in a slight inaccurate calculation of children under 75% SMI for certain zip codes: 94104, 94105, 94107, and 94130. The unmet need calculations for these zip codes have been adjusted to reflect the number of children receiving subsidies. In 1998, CPAC collapsed these four geographically small neighborhoods for planning purposes when comparing concentrations of need.

As noted by CCPAC, “While these numbers can reveal where need for additional subsidies is most pressing, it is certainly an under-reporting of the true need for subsidized care due to the inadequacy of the statewide standard of 75% SMI eligibility ceiling. The 75% SMI does not adequately account for the high cost of living in San Francisco and the thousands of families who need assistance in affording care but have incomes over the 75% SMI ceiling."  For more information about child care subsidy types, availability and eligibility, please read the 2007 Child Care Needs Assessment, available online at: http://sfcpac.org/publications-reports (Accessed on September 11, 2009)

To avoid double-counting subsidized children in half-day programs, half-day preschool subsidies were excluded. Head Start is included. While these numbers are not exact, it is a key adjustment to the total. The numbers are not adjusted for the duplication of children using vouchers and center subsidies.

Data collected by Children's Council of San Francisco and Wu Yee Children's Services include parents who are enrolled in subsidized childcare. Therefore, the information represents service utilization, those who are using care, and not necessarily the demand/need/eligibility for service (numbers may be higher than numbers shown here as enrolled). A thorough parent survey would better inform a planning process for what parents want versus what they are using.

Why is this a Community Health Indicator?

Substantial research demonstrates that accessible high quality childcare positively affects childhood growth, physical development, and physical health, cognitive, behavioral and school outcomes.^a,b The accessibility of childcare for low income earners is dependent on the availability of subsidies. The Urban Institute has calculated that 2.7 million people would be lifted out of poverty if child care assistance were provided to all families with children whose incomes are below 200 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL).