Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 48
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
6
Overall, the number of children a program currently serves and their desire to serve fewer
or more children may be influenced by a variety of factors, including program design
choices, age group distributions, staffing challenges, resource constraints, and other
operational considerations.
Full-day actual capacity is unlikely to equal licensed capacity precisely, because of the
many differences in group sizes and ratios by child age. These results indicate that full-day
actual capacity in greater Davidson County could be increased somewhat to get closer to
licensed capacity if center-based programs experienced fewer staffing, pre-k competition,
and cost challenges. However, most programs are currently satisfied with the number of
children they serve in each age group, indicating room for growth is limited. Efforts to
increase greater Davidson County’s child care supply may benefit from a multifaceted
approach that includes adding new providers to the market as well as identifying
opportunities to expand the number of slots among some existing providers.
Child Care Centers Can Serve Just Over Half of Children Under
Age 5 in Working Families
Among the approximately 57,000 children ages birth to 5 in greater Davidson County, an estimated
70 percent, or approximately 39,900 children, live in households in which all parents are in the
workforce according to the US Census Bureau.
Through the estimated 22,184 slots accessible to
Most Common Child Care Center
families today, child care centers could serve a
Characteristics From the Child
maximum of 56 percent of local children ages birth to
Care Provider Survey
5 with all parents in the workforce.
•
92% are open 5 days a week,
In reality, not every child with all parents working
Monday through Friday
will need or want a center-based child care slot, and
• 88% offer year-round child care
not every child attending center-based care will have
all parents in the workforce; however, the gap
• 35% are affiliated with a church or
between supply and potential demand suggests that
religious organization
many working families face limited access to full-time
• None offer weekend child care
child care options that meet their needs and
preferences.c This gap is further illuminated by the
prevalence of waitlists among child care centers, with 88 percent of surveyed centers
waitlisting or turning away at least one child because of lack of capacity in the past 6 months.
As a result, some families may need to rely on unstable child care arrangements that disrupt
work or, in some cases, drive them to exit the workforce altogether.16
c Some families choose home-based child care. However, home-based child care in greater Davidson County is very
limited, with only 317 licensed home-based slots in the entire region. Thus, home-based child care does not substantively
increase the number of children that can be served by the child care system and is often not an option for local families
seeking care. See Brief 3 for more information on home-based care.
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2026
www.pn3policy.org
