Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 51
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
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may not be located in areas that are reasonably accessible to them. However, the number of
income-eligible children far outnumbers even the total number of occupied or open child care
slots in the region (~22,000), identifying likely gaps in the region’s ability to meet the child
care needs of certificate-eligible families.
Additionally, since data collection for this study concluded, Tennessee has experienced
reductions in federal child care funding, including an approximately $44.5 million decrease
in its Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) annual allocation. Funding cuts have affected
certificate structures, including introducing a 5 percent co-pay for all families based on
income and implementing a waitlist, further complicating income-eligible families’ ability
to access certificates.26
State funding and regional capacity are not the only factors that may impact child care
access for families that receive a certificate. In greater Davidson County, although the
majority of child care centers accept certificates (according to state licensing data), data
from the Child Care Provider Survey illustrates that the percentage of full-time occupied
slots filled by children using certificates varies widely by program. We estimate that 18
percent of the 163 certificate-accepting centers currently have no full-time slots occupied by
a child using certificate, based on our population-level estimates derived from Child Care
Provider Survey responses. The largest share of centers, 47 percent, serves a relatively small
share of children with certificates, or at least one child but less than a quarter of full-time
slots occupied by children using certificates (see Figure 6). Approximately 20 percent of
centers serve more than half of children with certificates.
Figure 6: Share of Full-Time Enrollment Occupied by Children Who Use Certificates Among
Centers that Accept Certificates
13 Centers
(8%)
29 Centers
(18%)
20 Centers
(12%)
No Certificate Enrollment
1-25% of Enrollment
26-50% of Enrollment
24 Centers
(15%)
51-75% of Enrollment
76-100% of Enrollment
77 Centers
(47%)
Source: Davidson County Child Care Provider Experience Survey. The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, 2025. n=163,
Note: Results were extrapolated to represent the estimated full population centers that accept certificates across greater
Davidson County.
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2026
www.pn3policy.org
