Expanding the child care table of influence: Reaching under-resourced families to understand their needs and barriers to accessing early childhood care and education

Abstract

Children enrolled in high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs benefit by enhanced overall development and educational success. Families benefit from quality ECEC by workforce participation and increased family income. Communities benefit with increased productivity through labor force participation and a reduction in the costs associated with unemployment and remedial education. Despite these benefits, a significant proportion of children from historically under-resourced backgrounds lack access to high quality ECEC. Efforts to understand families’ needs and barriers to ECEC access could help increase their children’s participation. Parents (118) from historically under-resourced backgrounds participated in focus groups to share their perceptions of caring for and educating their children. Using thematic analysis, we discovered several themes regarding under-resourced families’ perceptions of ECEC. The community based participatory methods used in this study served to enhance family participation, data quality, and community acceptance.