Child Care Aware® of America’s research team produces reports throughout the year that are designed to advance high-quality, affordable child care. Key annual reports include our The US and the High Cost of Child Care report and Child Care in America: State Fact Sheets. We also publish a variety of issue briefs and white papers related to important topics in child care. Our goal is to continue, and amplify, our service as a national leader in child care research and data and to ensure that our organization and the field are positioned and prepared to address the challenges and leverage opportunities in child care.
Below is some information on our upcoming reports.
Mapping the Gap: Exploring Child Care Supply & Demand (Ongoing)
We continue to work with our Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) partners to map child care supply and demand gaps in states and regions across the country. We have expanded this work with CCR&Rs to map gaps in quality-rated child care, child care during nonstandard hours, and child care for infants and toddlers.
It’s About Time: Parents Who Work Nonstandard Hours Face Child Care Challenges
This report provides a summary of the literature of nonstandard hours child care and the impacts that parents, businesses, families and children experience. The report shares recommendations for policies and legislation to build a supply of quality, affordable overnight and weekend child care and highlights the work that Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies do to support families who need extended hours child care and recruit and retain qualified nonstandard hours child care programs.
Closing the Gap: How CCR&Rs Can Help Communities Meet their Child Care Supply and Demand Needs
This report features stories from CCR&Rs and partner organizations working in states to close gaps between child care supply and demand. This report is the follow-up to our 2016 Child Care Deserts report.
Checking In: A Snapshot of the Child Care Landscape — 2019 State Fact Sheets
This resource provides data related to child care supply, affordability, the services provided by CCR&Rs and child care quality improvement systems in each state. The fact sheets are used by child care and early education advocates, policymakers and program administrators under the child care landscape in each state, along with the challenges that America’s working parents face as they strive to access high-quality, affordable child care for their children.
The US and the High Cost of Child Care Report
This report provides a brief review of child care as a sound return on investment and shares our policy recommendations for supporting families and child care providers. Last year’s report featured case studies on regional costs in Maryland, California and the Washington, D.C., metro area, as well as a feature chapter outlining the importance of Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) agencies and their partners in connecting families to child care, supporting the child care workforce, and the need for adequate funding for this state- and local-level child care support structure. Look for new exciting features this fall.
Child Care Licensing Benchmarking Report and Tool (October 2019)
In 2019, Child Care Aware® of America convened a group of early care and education (ECE) and licensing experts to revise the benchmarking tool and rubric that CCAoA uses to rate child care licensing regulations. Staff shared an overview of the tool and the results from the pilots in October 2019, and the final benchmarking tool and state rankings were rolled out in 2020.
