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

本研究的主要目的是探讨伊利诺州幼儿保育补助政策的改变如何影响幼儿保育补助的领取与幼儿保育的稳定性。具体目标是审查：（1）政策变化（家庭收入资格的增加;提供者支付率的增加;以及家庭提供者的工会化）如何影响儿童保育补贴的连续性。(2)这些政策变化如何影响儿童保育安排的稳定性。(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。该项目将创建一个三岁以下幼儿的纵向数据集，这些幼儿首先获得儿童保育补贴，并跟踪他们到五岁。该项目将采用准实验性设计，将一组经历了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）。本研究将采用倾向分数配对法，比较两组在幼儿保育补助的连续性和幼儿保育的稳定性方面的差异。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.