Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 81
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
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Although findings cannot be generalized to all home-based child care programs in greater
Davidson County, among these 14 programs, the minimal difference between licensed capacity
(151 slots) and full-day actual capacity (148 slots) indicates that programs are operating near
their regulatory limits. If similar utilization patterns hold across the remaining 15 licensed
home-based programs that did not respond to the survey, then licensed home-based care is
likely operating close to full licensed capacity, with exceedingly few open slots available to
families seeking licensed home-based care.
Programs report they have
open slots because of
short-term enrollment turnover
Further, the prevalence of waitlists among home-based programs underscores both the limited
availability of home-based child care slots and the persistent demand that exceeds current
capacity. Among survey respondents, 10 of 14 (71%) report waitlisting or turning away at
least one child because of capacity constraints in the past 6 months.
In greater Davidson County, families’ access to home-based child care is limited by a system
operating near full licensed capacity. High enrollment, few open child care slots (often not
open for long), and persistent waitlists leave virtually no space for new enrollment within
existing home-based programs. As a result, current home-based programs cannot
meaningfully expand to take on additional children. Meeting excess demand for home-based
child care in greater Davidson County would require new home-based child care programs to
enter the system.
Full-Time Home-Based Child Care Options for Infants Are
Particularly Limited
Although many families prefer home-based child care for their infants, the scarcity of infant
slots in greater Davidson County’s already limited home-based child care system presents
additional challenges to meeting infant care needs.10, 11, 12 Currently, Child Care Provider
Survey respondents report that only 11 of the 112 children (10%) enrolled full-time in
home-based child care are infants, and just 6 of the 26 (23%) open full-time home-based
child care slots are designated for infant care (see Figure 2).f
Of the 138 full-time home-based child care slots occupied by or available to children under
age 5 among survey respondents, just 17 (12%) are allocated for infants, compared to 43
(31%) for toddlers and 78 (57%) for preschoolers (see Figure 2).
f 1.5 slots are occupied by or open to infants using part-time care. We limit analyses in this section to children using full-
time care only.
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2025
www.pn3policy.org
