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Who's Minding the Kids?
Grandparents Leading Child-Care Providers, Census Bureau Reports
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 today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
The report, Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 1997[PDF],
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 of
21 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.
