Emergency child care

Connecting essential workers to emergency child care

Policy problem:

The childcare sector has historically operated at narrow margins, and the COVID-19 crisis has brought to light the fragile nature of a critical resource for families and for a functioning economy. As COVID-19 began to spread, Texas’ state and local leaders needed rapid and reliable information on where and how to invest in emergency child care and ongoing information on enrollment rates in child care programs.

TPL’s role:

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) partnered with the Texas Policy Lab to quantify the need for childcare among essential workers. TPL’s data scientists developed interactive features on this site, overlaying COVID-19 metrics to highlight areas heavily impacted both by the virus and by childcare shortages. The Texas Policy Lab also supported TWC in conducting ongoing analyses of enrollment rates in child care programs to understand the impact of COVID-19 on child care businesses.

Impact:

TPL has identified areas of the state in need of a greater child care supply. At each phase of reopening, this data informed the Governor’s Frontline Child Care Task Force and Strike Force to Open Texas. These analyses directed emergency child care investments to geographic regions with the largest gaps and led TWC to continue a 25% increase in reimbursement rate through the end of 2020 and dedicate federal funding to continue this enhanced rate. Ongoing enrollment rate analyses continue to inform child care business recovery efforts.

Sample deliverables:

Data visualization tool

Texas child care provider enrollment rates

Estimating Child Care Supply and Demand in Texas

“When the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, we heard anecdotally from child-care providers and from national partners that child-care enrollment was dropping drastically, threatening the sustainability of this critical industry. The data assisted the state in understanding the ongoing challenges that child care providers are facing due to lower overall enrollment numbers. Ongoing analysis indicated that enrollment remains low, and supported the state’s decision to dedicate federal funding to continue a temporary enhanced reimbursement rate for subsidy child care providers.”

—Shay Everitt, Senior Advisor, Child Care & Early Learning Division, Texas Workforce Commission