What Is the Quality of Child Care Used by Low Income Working Families in the Four Communities?

In this chapter, we present results of the child care quality assessments conducted in the Community Child Care Research Project. The sample consisted of the 307 child care settings attended by the children in the study. Data collection took place during 2002 and 2003. Sixty-three percent (n=193) of children were place in child care centers (licensed child care center, child care ministry, and Head Start program) while 27% (n=114) were in home-based settings (licensed and unlicensed family child care and relative care). This chapter describes the quality of child care utilized by these 307 children, and examines differences in quality among the communities and among types of care in the sample. Descriptive statistics are presented in Appendix E.