Who's Minding the Kids in the Summer? Child Care Arrangements: Summer 2006

Lynda L. Laughlin, U.S. Census Bureau
Joseph Rukus, Cornell University

This paper examines patterns in child care usage during the summer months for children of employed mothers. Using the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation, this paper offers a systematic evaluation of summer child care arrangements for preschool and school age children. A number of aspects are examined, including: type of care, hours in care, racial and economic differences in summer child care usage, as well as the role of fathers. Initial findings suggest that there is little variation in the types of child care families use between summer and non-summer months. Instead, the number of hours spent in certain types of child care increased during the summer. While the overall level of child care provided by fathers varied little between non-summer and summer months, findings indicate that there are importance difference in father care by income, race, and marital status.