EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF POLICY CHANGES ON CHILD CARE SUBSIDY RECEIPT AND CHILD CARE STABILITY AMONG LOW-INCOME FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN ILLINOIS: QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

本项目的主要目的是研究伊利诺伊州儿童保育补贴政策的变化对儿童保育补贴收入和儿童保育稳定性的影响。具体目的是检查：(1)政策变化（增加家庭收入资格；增加提供者支付率；以及家庭服务提供者的工会化）如何影响儿童保育补贴收据的连续性。(2)这些政策变化如何影响托儿安排的稳定性。(3)这些政策变化如何影响有TANF收据历史的家庭。这项研究将使用2001年至2013年伊利诺伊州每月儿童保育补贴的行政数据。该项目将创建一个纵向数据集，其中包括首次获得儿童保育补贴的3岁以下幼儿，并跟踪他们到5岁。该项目将采用准实验设计，创建一组经历过2005-2008年政策变化的儿童（实验组）和一组没有经历过政策变化的儿童（对照组）。采用倾向得分匹配比较两组在托儿补贴持续性和托儿稳定性方面的差异。该研究还将对具有TANF历史的样本子集进行分析，以确定政策变化对这一群体的影响是否与其他低收入群体不同。

The main purpose of this project is to examine how state policy changes in child care subsidy affect child care subsidy receipt and child care stability among young children in Illinois. Specific aims are to examine: (1) How policy changes (increases in family income eligibility; increases in provider payment rates; and unionization of home-based providers) affect continuity of child care subsidy receipt. (2) How such policy changes affect stability in child care arrangements. (3) How such policy changes affect families with a history of TANF receipt. The study will use monthly child care subsidy administrative data from the state of Illinois from 2001 to 2013. The project will create a longitudinal dataset of young children under age three who first received a child care subsidy and follow them through age five. The project will employ a quasi-experimental design and create one group of children who experienced the 2005-2008 policy changes (experimental group) and an earlier group of children who did not (control group). Propensity score matching will be employed to compare how the two groups differ in continuity of child care subsidy and stability of child care. The study will also conduct analyses with subsets of the samples with TANF histories, to determine whether the policy changes affected this group differently from the rest of the low-income group.