July 2021

The Child Care and Development Block Grant—the law authorizing the largest source of federal funding for child care—supports access to stable, high-quality child care for children living in families with low incomes. Yet many parents who work early mornings, evenings, overnight, and/or weekends have few child care options. To provide states with information about the potential demand for child care during these nontraditional hours (NTH) and policies that could address access to NTH child care, we produced snapshots for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States.

Each state snapshot shows the following:

• the number and share of children under age 6 who live in working families where all parents work NTH
• the share with parents working in different NTH time periods
• the share with different personal and family characteristics who have NTH-working parents
• policies each state has planned to take that could address access to NTH child care

State policymakers seeking to tailor child care policies and regulations to meet the needs of all families with young children can use these snapshots to identify potential needs, tailor efforts to the characteristics of children and families in their state, and identify potential actions that could increase the supply of NTH child care.

For information on data and methods, download the technical appendix: “State Snapshots of Potential Demand for and Policies to Support Nontraditional Hour Child Care: Technical Appendix.”

For information on state-by-state comparisons, see “Comparing Potential Demand for Nontraditional-Hour Child Care and Planned Policies across States”

To view the data file that shows the numbers and percentages, click here.

These snapshots were supported by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the United States (US) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award (Grant Number 90YE0241) totaling $105,000 with 100 percent funded by ACF/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, ACF/HHS or the US government. For more information, please visit the ACF website. We thank them for their support but acknowledge that the findings and conclusions presented in these snapshots are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the funder or the Urban Institute. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at urban.org/funding principles.

Suggested Citation: Diane Schilder, Peter Willenborg, Cary Lou, Sarah Knowles, and Kate Thomas (2021). “State Snapshots of Potential Demand for and Policies to Support Nontraditional-Hour Child Care,” Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

Copyright © July 2021. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute.