What did the research show about child care used by Early Head Start children?
The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project included studies of the implementation and impacts of Early Head Start. The research was conducted in 17 sites representing diverse program models, racial/ethnic makeup, auspice, and region. In 1996, 3,001 children and families in these sites were randomly assigned to receive Early Head Start services or to be in a control group who could utilize any community services except Early Head Start. The child care study drew on data gathered by interviewing program and control group parents about their child care use during the three service interviews by studying program implementation from the three site visits, from child and family characteristics assessed at 14, 24 and 36 months, and from observations of the quality of children’s primary child care arrangements (the setting most used for 10 hours per week or more) in conjunction with the birthday interviews. Families were interviewed about services at 7, 16, and 28 months after random
