Who’s Minding the Kids?

Grandparents were the leading child-care providers for preschoolers who were in some type of child-care arrangement in 1997, according to a report released by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau.

The report, Who’s Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 1997, is the first-ever Census Bureau analysis of families who receive help in paying for child care from either the government, their other parent, a parent’s employer or another source.

Among the nation’s 19.6 million preschoolers, grandparents took care of21 percent, the report said. About 17 percent were cared for by their father (while their mother was employed or in school); 12 percent were in day-care centers; 9 percent were cared for by other relatives; 7 percent were cared for by a family day-care provider in their home; and 6 percent
received care in nursery schools or preschools. More than one-third of preschoolers (7.2 million) had no regular child-care arrangement and presumably were under maternal care.

“Only 15 percent of grandparents were paid for taking care of their preschool-age grandchildren, with payments averaging $40 per week,” said Census Bureau analyst Kristin Smith. “On the other hand, day-care centers received twice that amount, averaging $83 per week.”

In spring 1997, 466,000 preschoolers received help from the government to pay for child care. Preschoolers living in poverty were more likely to receive help from the government to pay for child care (9 percent) than those living just above the poverty line (5 percent). Preschoolers whose mothers were attending school were more than twice as likely to receive
assistance to pay for child care from the government as those of employed mothers (16 percent and 7 percent, respectively).

Other highlights of the report include:

– Non-Hispanic White and Asian and Pacific Islander preschoolers were more likely to be cared for by their fathers than by their grandparents. However, the reverse occurred for African American preschoolers. No statistical differences were found between the proportions of Hispanic children cared for by their grandparents and those cared for by their fathers.

– Poor families with an employed mother who paid for child care spent roughly three times as much of their budget on it than families who were not poor (20 percent versus 7 percent).

– Preschoolers of employed mothers were more likely to be cared for in paid arrangements than were those with unemployed mothers (57 percent versus 32 percent) and, on average, were in more costly arrangements ($70 per week versus $50 per week).

– Grade-school children of employed mothers were less likely to be in a paid arrangement than preschoolers (41 percent versus 57 percent). When grade-school children were in such an arrangement, the average cost per week was lower than for preschoolers ($42 versus $70), but the price per hour was higher ($2.82 versus $2.22).

The data are from the spring 1997 Survey of Income and Program Participation. As in all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error.

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