Recent research reveals that many parents who work nontraditional hours (NTH) prefer care offered by friends or relatives during those hours, rather than center-based care. However, more analysis is needed to help policymakers decide how to best support these families. This snapshot fills that gap by analyzing 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) data to explore how much and what types of care young children are in during NTH.

Key findings:

• Children who spent any time in NTH care spent substantially more time in child care than those in traditional-hour care only—47 hours compared with 31 hours a week.
• Young children in NTH care average 8.5 hours a week in weekend care, 5.5 hours of care in the evening, and 1.7 hours overnight.
• Children in NTH care spend more time in family, friend, and neighbor care than in any other type of child care.
• Black children spend an average of 19 hours a week in NTH care, compared with 16 hours for white children and 13 hours for Asian children.