Indicator: 79 - Access to Childcare

Why This Is Important

For some families, especially for children from economically challenged backgrounds, enrollment in an early childhood education program is one indicator of readiness to learn in elementary school. Communities that create access to preschool, before- and after-school programs for families are keeping families at the heart of their decisions.

Where We Stand

In the last two years, just over two-fifths of those surveyed who had a child or children under 18 "strongly agreed" or "agreed" with the statement: "I have access to high quality, affordable child care in my community." This percentage did not differ much from region to region in the state, but it did rise with reported household income.

Data Sources and Context

Maine data for this indicator comes from the Maine Development Foundation 2000 and 2001 Surveys of Maine Citizens. The 2000 Survey was conducted in September 2000 by Market Decisions, Inc.; the 2001 Survey was done between August 20 and September 6, 2001, by Strategic Marketing Services. In both years a randomly selected statewide sample of 601 households was interviewed by telephone. Special effort was made to include an adequate number of parents with children living primarily at home (401 in 2000, and 425 in 2001), so their responses are representative of all parents in Maine. However, because the number of parents in each of the income groups in the chart is comparatively small (especially for households with income below $15,000), those results are not necessarily representative of all parents in those income groups in Maine. Survey results are available on-line at http://www.mdf.org.