10.16.2012

Boston Early Care and Education Supply and Demand Fact Sheet December 2012

Highlights Universal Demand Estimates

Boston currently only has enough early care and education supply for 58.8% of its infants and toddlers.1

Boston currently has enough early care and education supply for 76.4% of its preschool age children.2

MA Early Education and Care Waitlist3

Statewide, there are 33,070 young children on the EEC waitlist o 16,707 (50.5%) are infant and toddlers o 16,363 (49.5%) are preschool age

In Boston, there are 5,612 young children on the EEC waitlist (17.0% of the entire waitlist)

o 3094 (55.1%) are infants and toddlers o 2,518 (44.9%) are preschool age

Early Care and Education Demand Population of Young Children4

There are 44,484 children between the ages of 0 and 5 years 4 months in Boston o 21,212 (47.7%) are infants and toddlers o 23,252 (52.2%) are preschool age children

Early Care and Education Supply6, 10

19,915 total Boston infant/toddler and preschool capacity5 o 6,241 Boston infant/toddler capacity5 o 13,674 Boston preschool age capacity5

Center-Based Programs6

199 licensed center-based programs in Boston with infant/toddler and preschool slots o 173 community-based programs o 26 Head Start programs o 84 additional programs that have only school age or mixed Kindergarten/school

age slots

11,425 total center-based capacity o 3,640 center-based infant/toddler capacity o 7,785 center-based preschool age capacity

92 (46.2%) center-based programs are NAEYC accredited7 Family Child Care Providers6

685 licensed family child care providers in Boston

10.16.2012

4,791 licensed family child care capacity8

30 (4.4%) family child care providers are NAFCC accredited9 Boston Public Schools (BPS)10

70 public schools serving 3- and/or 4-year-olds o 209 public school classrooms serving 3- and/or 4-year-olds

2,805 preschool capacity

17 (24.3%) public schools serving K0 and K1 children are NAEYC accredited11 o Additional 19 public schools in process for accreditation (increasing total to

51.4%)10 Other License Exempt Providers (private, parochial, religious, charter)

30 other license exempt providers serving 3- and/or 4-year-olds12

894 preschool age capacity12

11 (36.7%) other license exempt providers are NEASC accredited13 1 Based on a universal demand of 50% of infants and toddlers needing care. 2 Based on a universal demand of 77% of preschoolers needing care. 3 MA EEC (KinderWait), 12/06/12. 4 Boston Public Health Commission (Birth Records), 2012.

http://www.bphc.org/about/research/hob/Pages/Home.aspx 5 Incorporates age estimates for FCC derived by applying 2012 Community Profiles data to known capacity data. 6 MA Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) (Active Provider List – Boston, Chelsea, Revere Area), 2012.

http://www.eec.state.ma.us/ChildCareSearch/activeproviders.aspx 7 NAEYC (Accredited Program Search – Boston), 05/27/12. 8 The FCC capacity listed takes into account an estimated proportion of school age children that may be in FCC

care. This proportion is estimated with the 2012 Community Profiles enrollment data. 9 NAFCC (Accredited Providers), 07/12. 10 BPS data from 2012-2013 school year, 10/12. 11 NAEYC (Accredited Program Search – Boston), 10/16/12. 12 Due to other license exempt providers’ nature of not being required to report data to regulating bodies, these

numbers are likely undercounting the total number and capacity for this type of early care and education provider. 13 NEASC (CIS Directory of Schools), 08/12; no OLE programs were NAEYC accredited.