Many Connecticut families with young children are struggling to access child care

The RAPID Survey Project partners with cities, counties, and states across the U.S. to listen to parents and caregivers with children under age 6. Their voices and experiences provide snapshots of what life is like for those raising young children in communities across the country and help to spot national trends. The goal of the project is to lift up parent voices to inform local policies and programs that support families. Learn more about our work and where we conduct surveys.

Download the complete fact sheet for direct quotes from survey participants and more.

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In 2024, we partnered with The Connecticut Project and community-based organizations in the state to hear directly from Connecticut families of all races, ethnicities, and income levels. This fact sheet represents survey data from 1,803 parents of children under age 6 across all eight Connecticut counties, who told us about their experiences with child care access and affordability.

The Connecticut Project and its partners will use this information to inform early learning and care professionals, policymakers, funders, economic and workforce developers, intermediaries, and business leaders so that program and policy recommendations are reflective of what families in the state say they need.

One in four Connecticut families with young children say child care is unaffordable

The data show that Connecticut families of all races, ethnicities, and income levels who do not have their young child in child care report that the high cost is the main reason they are not using child care.

Among surveyed Connecticut families who have child care, 25% report that their current child care arrangement is unaffordable. Almost two in three surveyed Connecticut parents (63%) report spending more than 7% of total family income on child care, higher than the child care affordability benchmark established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Child care subsidies intended to help lower-income families afford child care are only reaching a small percentage of income-eligible families

To help offset the cost of child care, Connecticut offers a child care subsidy (Care 4 Kids) to parents based on their family income. Only 35% of surveyed Connecticut parents who are eligible based on their income are receiving Care 4 Kids.

More than one in four (28%) surveyed Connecticut parents who are eligible based on their income but did not apply for child care benefits say the reason they did not apply is because they are unsure if their family meets the income eligibility criteria. Additionally, one in five (20%) surveyed Connecticut parents who are eligible based on their income say they did not know about the child care benefits or how to find a child care program that accepts the benefits.

Connecticut families' reasons for not applying for the Care 4 Kids child care subsidy

Connecticut families with young children face difficulty finding child care

Half of Connecticut families (50%) who took the survey and report searching for child care in the past year had difficulty finding space in a home- or center-based program. When asked about their most recent search for child care for their children under age 6, 29% of parents say that it took three months or longer to find child care.

Families’ experiences finding child care differ by income level and primary language spoken in the home. The data show that surveyed lower-income Connecticut families with young children are more likely to have spent at least three months searching for child care compared to surveyed middle- and higher-income Connecticut families with young children.

Among surveyed Connecticut families with young children who speak a primary language other than English in the home (16%), almost half (44%) had difficulty finding a child care provider who speaks the same language as them.

Percentage of Connecticut families whose child care search took longer than three months, by state median income (SMI)

Connecticut families with a child with disabilities experience additional challenges accessing child care

The surveyed Connecticut parents with a young child with a disability are experiencing particular hardships meeting child care needs. More than two in three Connecticut parents (69%) who have a child under age 6 with a disability report difficulty finding a child care provider who could meet the needs of their child.

Missing work due to lack of child care can impact parents' emotional well-being and the household's financial well-being and economic stability. RAPID Survey Project analysis shows that Connecticut parents with a young child with a disability report having to miss work more than three times in the past month due to disruptions in their usual child care, compared to an average of two times per month for Connecticut parents who do not have a young child with a disability.

Conclusion

Many parents with young children in Connecticut are finding it hard to access the child care they need and that can support their family and young children’s well-being. Child care is particularly hard to access for parents with lower incomes and parents who have a child with a disability. The data show that more work is needed to reach all families with young children in Connecticut with information about the availability of child care subsidies (Care 4 Kids) and to support families looking for child care. These findings point to the need to address parents’ concerns and experiences so they are better supported in providing the healthy, responsive caregiving that is essential to their young children’s development. The Connecticut Project aims to make these findings available to advocacy organizations and policymakers who are in the best place to make needed changes for families in the state.