Child Care and Children with Special Needs

1
Child Care and Children with Special Needs

• Challenges for Low-income Families

2
Mixed Method, Multi-level Study

• Qualitative Research
• Focus groups, interviews of parents of children
  with special needs representing 39 families in
  six communities in Maine and Connecticut
  (completed)
• Field study in three Maine communities consisting
  of interviews with professionals who work with
  families with children with special needs
  (completed)
• Quantitative Research
• Child care provider survey of random statewide
  sample of 430 licensed providers with a response
  rate of 42 (n-179) (completed, analysis ongoing)
• Parent survey by phone of 441 parents with
  children with special needs (completed, analysis
  ongoing)
• National data set analysis (NSAF and NLSY)
  (on-going)

3
Study Population and Research Questions

• Low income families (under 225 of poverty) with
  at least one child 0 to 6 with special needs.
• Broad Research Questions
• What are the experiences of low income families
  with children with special needs in finding child
  care and balancing work and family?
• What constellation of supports makes it possible
  for these families to work and successfully
  balance work and family? What are the triggers
  that cause things to fall apart?
• What is the economic and emotional impact on the
  family?

4
Preliminary Findings from Statewide Survey of
Parents of Children with Special Needs

• In this poster presentation we present
  preliminary findings from the just completed
  statewide parent survey component of our study.
• 441 parents of children with special needs in
  Maine responded to a mailing inviting their
  participation which was mailed to 6,200 parents
  on the Medicaid (Title V, SSI and Katie Beckett
  waiver) and IDEA early intervention/preschool
  special education lists.
• Analysis of survey data from the full sample is
  ongoing and we present here primarily findings
  from the sample of parents of children with
  special needs ages 0 to 5

5
Full Sample

• 441 Participants
• 97.5 were mother or father of child with special
  needs
• 79 were married 8 lived with a partner
• Average of 2.2 children living in the home
• 29 had more than one child with special needs

6
Age of Child

• 0-2 years 15
• 3-5 years 46
• 6-10 years 18
• 11-14 years 13
• 15-18 years 8
• 19 1

7
0-5 year old sample

• 267 children
• Average of 2.1 children living in the household
  (range from 1 to 6)
• 75 (201) attend some form of ECE program.
• 24 have more than one child with a disability
• 28 of low income families have more than one
  child with a disability
• 19 of high income families have more than one
  child with a disability

0-5 Sample
8
Primary Diagnosisof Children

• 28 (76) have a primarily behavioral diagnosis
• 19 (51) have a primarily physical diagnosis
• 21 (57) have a mixed diagnosis (physical and
  behavioral)
• 31 (83) speech/language
• 0-5 Sample

9
Characteristics of Adult Respondents

• Average age of parent is 34 years (range 20 to
  49)
• 96 are female 4 are male
• Educational Level of primary respondent
• 40 of the sample has a 4 year college or higher
  degree (13 have a graduate degree)
• 36 have some college classes or an Associates
  degree
• 20 have a High School Diploma
• 78 of parents are married, 10 have a live-in
  partner and 12 are single
• Only 6 have another adult (other than spouse or
  partner) living in the household

0-5 Sample
10
Income of 0-5 sample

• 52 of the families are low-income - they make
  less than 225 of poverty.
• 18 make less than 20,000/year
• 38 make between 20,000 and 45,000/year
• 20 make between 45,000 and 65,000/year
• 12 make between 65,000 and 80,000/year
• 7 make between 80,000 and 100,000/year
• 5 make more than 100,000/year

0-5 Sample
11
Child Care Issues

• What are the experiences of families in finding
  child care for their children with special needs?
  

12
ECE Programs

• In analyzing data for child care arrangements we
  used the following categories
• Regular ECE program (preschool, nursery school,
  child care center, family child care)
• Integrated ECE program (mixes children with
  special needs and children without, with support)
• Separate program only for special needs within a
  regular ECE program
• Stand-alone program only for special needs
• Head Start

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Child Care Arrangements by Primary Diagnosis
14
Use of Family Child Care Homes for Children with
Special Needs

• Statewide surveys show that 40 of Maines 0-5
  population as a whole are using family child care
  homes. (Maine OCCHS, 2002).
• Yet in our study, only 5 of our sample of
  children with special needs are using family
  child care as their primary child care
  arrangement.

0-5 Sample
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Special Services Received by Children 0-5

• 93 of children received special services (OT,
  PT, ST, counseling, talk therapy)
• 56 of children have services delivered at an
  early care and education setting
• 31 of children have services delivered at home
• 63 of children 0-2 had services delivered at
  home
• 21 of children 3-5 had services delivered at
  home
• 53 of children have services delivered at
  specialists office
• Percentages add up to more than 100 because
  some children are receiving services at multiple
  locations.

0-5 Sample
16
Child Care Problems
17
Number of Child Care Problems by Primary Diagnosis

• Even after controlling for age, location
  (urban/rural) and income, having a child with a
  behavioral issue is strongly related to the
  number of child care problems (F 7.95, p lt .01)
• Having a child with a physical or mixed diagnosis
  is not related to the number of child care
  problems.

0-5 Sample
18
Work Issues

• What are the experiences of parents of children
  with special needs in balancing work and meeting
  the needs of their children?

19
Employment

• 63 of respondents are currently employed
• 10 of those working have a second job
• In a typical week, respondents work an average of
  33 hours (ranging from 1 to 98) the most common
  number of hours is 35 hours per week.
• 26 work off-hours

0-21 Sample
20
Family Employment

• 56 of families have two adults working
• In 33 of families, only the spouse/partner works
• In 7 of families, only the mother works
• In 5 of families, neither parent works

0-21 Sample
21
Shift work

• 48 of families both work between 6am and 6pm
• In 25 of families, the mother works during
  daytime hours and the father works off-hours
• In 19 of families, the mother works off hours
  and the father works daytime hours
• In 8 of families, both parents work off-hours
• In 52 of families, at least one parent works
  off-hours

0-21 Sample
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Employment Problems Relatedto Having a Child
with Special Needs

• 57 of parents have had to reduce work hours in
  order to care for their child
• 44 changed work hours to a different time of day
• 30 of parents have quit work (other than for
  normal maternity leave)
• 29 turned down a better job or promotion
• 27 of parents have changed jobs
• 26 worried that they were at risk of losing
  their job
• 5 have lost or been fired from a job
• Respondents were asked whether they have
  had any of these employment problems because of
  having a child with special needs now or in the
  past.

0-21 Sample
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Interruptions at work

• We looked at whether parents were interrupted
  never, rarely, occasionally or often at work for
  reasons related to their childs special needs.
• 30 of working parents were interrupted often
  during their work week (about 3.5 times a week)
• Another 33 of working parents were interrupted
  occasionally during their work week
• 0-21 Sample

24
Interruptions at work by primary diagnosis

• Having a child with a mixed diagnosis did not
  relate to the number of interruptions at work.
• Having a child with a primarily behavioral issue
  was strongly associated with more interruptions
  at work 76 of parents were interrupted
  occasionally or often (t 4.6, p lt .000).
  Those parents were interrupted about 3.7 times a
  week.
• Having a child with a primarily physical issue
  was significantly associated with more
  interruptions at work 77 of parents were
  interrupted occasionally or often (t 2.30,
  p lt .05). Those parents were interrupted about
  2.9 times a week.
• Having a child with a primarily speech/language
  issue was strongly associated with less
  interruptions at work 16 of parents were
  interrupted occasionally or often (t 8.80,
  p lt .000)
• 0-21 Sample

25
Number of Employment Problems

• Even after controlling for age of child, location
  (urban/rural) and income, having a child with a
  behavioral issue is significantly related to
  having more work problems (F 5.118, p lt .05)
• After controlling for age of child, location and
  income, having a child with a mixed diagnosis is
  moderately related to having more work problems
  (F 3.05, p lt .10)
• Having a child with a physical issue is not
  related to the number of work problems

0-5 Sample
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• Reports
• Parents Voices (available in pdf format on our
  web site)
• Final Report and issue briefs, Spring, 2005
• For more information, please visit our website
• at http//muskie.usm.maine.edu/specialneeds or
  contact
• Helen Ward, JD., Project Director/Co-Principal
  Investigator
• 207-780-5831
• hward_at_usm.maine.edu
• or
• Lisa Morris, PhD., Co-Principal Investigator
• 207-780-5846
• lmorris_at_usm.maine.edu
• University of Southern Maine
• Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Policy
• Institute for Child and Family Policy