A report released today by the UMass Boston Early Education Cost and Usage Simulator (CUSP) Project demonstrates that increased family financial assistance for early child care and education will make quality licensed child care for children of all racial and ethnic groups more affordable. Provided that there is an adequate supply of quality child care to meet the expected increase in demand, increased family financial assistance holds the potential to virtually eliminate existing racial/ethnic gaps in access to quality child care.

Led by the Early Education Leaders Institute and Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, the UMass Boston CUSP Project has developed a statistical model to produce estimates of key impacts of proposed legislation in Massachusetts (Senate Bill 301) to expand access to affordable, quality child care and early education. The model predicts changes in the utilization of licensed care and education, out-of-pocket costs for families, parental employment, and family income when family financial assistance for child care is increased. Building a Foundation for Racial and Ethnic Equity: Estimated Impacts of Massachusetts Legislation to Expand Affordable Quality Child Care and Early Education details the impact of Senate Bill 301 (renumbered as Senate Bill 2707) on families by the race and ethnicity of children and parents.

Key findings of Building a Foundation for Racial and Ethnic Equity: Estimated Impacts of Massachusetts Legislation to Expand Affordable Quality Child Care and Early Education include:

• Eligibility for child care financial assistance proposed in the legislation varies by race and ethnicity: 40% of all White and Asian families are eligible; 82% of Latino, 78% of Black, and 69% of all other (including multiracial) families are eligible
• Under the legislative proposal, financial assistance would be provided to 128,500 families in the Commonwealth, or 20.6% of all families with children. When examined by race, the financial assistance would affect 33% of Latino, Black, and other (including multiracial) families with age-eligible children as compared with 20% of Asian families and 15% of White families.
• For children younger than school age currently using nonparental care, utilization of licensed care under the legislative proposal would increase from 54% to 80% for Black children and 47% to 77% for Latino children.
• All families would experience increased rates of parental employment under the legislative proposal. The largest increases in the numbers of hours worked would be seen among Black mothers (6.2% increase), followed by Latinas (5.8%) and other mothers, including those who are multiracial (5.4%).

“With so much evidence that licensed high quality child care and early education benefits children’s learning and development, increased utilization of licensed care would help reduce racial inequities during a critical developmental period for children,” said Anne Douglass, PhD, professor of early childhood education policy and founding executive director of Early Education Leaders.

“Expanded financial assistance to families would help level the playing field of licensed care usage,” said Randy Albelda, professor emerita of economics at UMass Boston. “Given the range of documented benefits of licensed care, the legislative proposal has the potential to make important strides in reducing racial inequalities currently prevalent in accessing quality child care and early education.”

Alan Clayton-Matthews, associate professor emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics at Northeastern University, explained: “Having reliable child care and early education will support increased employment opportunities for Black, Latino, and multiracial parents, especially mothers.”

“The impacts of this proposed legislation on racial inequities in the utilization in child care and early education can have long-term impacts on broader racial inequities faced by families and children in Massachusetts,” added Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Director of UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy.

Building a Foundation for Racial and Ethnic Equity: Estimated Impacts of Massachusetts Legislation to Expand Affordable Quality Child Care and Early Education is the second in a series of policy briefs to be released by the UMass Boston CUSP Project. The first, Estimating the Impacts of Legislation to Expand Affordable Quality Child Care and Early Education in Massachusetts: Initial Findings on Utilization, Employment, and Financial Assistance, was released last October.

UMass Boston CUSP will offer additional analyses in the coming months addressing the mitigation of cliff effects in the current legislation and supply of early childhood educators given anticipated demands with expanded family financial assistance.