A quick guide to childcare statistics resources
Childcare statistics can help you compare how you are doing to others in the same industry, help you demonstrate a need for childcare in your geographic area, and give you information about possible new opportunities. There are many places to go for childcare statistics
. Here are a few good starting points.
The National Childcare Information Center is a clearinghouse for childcare statistics in the United States. This huge site, http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/, supplies information ranging from new government initiatives, grants available, lots of data on the development of daycare across the country and special-interest information such as data about minority groups. There are also helpful reports on issues such as including children with disabilities in your childcare program, the progress being made in getting children ready for school through the daycare setting, etc. For example, the site contains a report on child development funds that says, in part:
The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) provides $4.8 billion in block grants to States, Territories, and Tribes to subsidize the cost of child care for low-income families. CCDF supports early care and education services for more than 1.8 million children each month. These services help low-income families become self-reliant and help ensure that children enter school ready to learn.(1)
The report contains both useful data on childcare statistics and information about an excellent program to know about.
This site also contains a wealth of state level daycare statistics and links to all the state resources you need. Go to http://nccic.org/statedata/statepro/index.html and find state profiles that include demographic information about the children, families and child care in each state, as well as contact information for different state agencies involved in child care. The profiles also contain links to additional state and national resources regarding childcare statistics.
Of course, there are hundreds of sites with childcare statistics but the national clearinghouse is a great place to start your search with solid information. A note of caution, if you are quoting data in any report, be sure to footnote the source and give credit as necessary.
(1) http://nccic.org/pubs/stateplan/execsum.html
