Project Report

Project Description

• Partners: Early Childhood Alliance (ECA), Child Care Solutions, and Onondaga County Department of Social Services Economic Security
• Method: Supply and demand analysis
• Outcome: In the aggregate, the Onondaga County child care supply gap has improved relative to the pandemic years. However, the current supply of child care in Onondaga County remains insufficient to meet the demand. Infants and toddlers (0-2 years) remain especially underserved.

Project Report

In 2022, the Early Childhood Alliance (ECA) Onondaga, Child Care Solutions, and the Onondaga County Department of Social Services - Economic Security (DSS-ES) commissioned Syracuse University’s Maxwell School X Lab to conduct a comprehensive child care landscape analysis to create a community baseline of supply and demand, analyzing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in particular. This report provides an update to the 2022 analysis, using the same supply and demand framework to evaluate early child care and education in Onondaga County and highlighting changes in availability and accessibility at the local level over the past three years.

This report compares 1) the supply of child care, which is the capacity of licensed and registered child care providers, universal pre-K slots, and legally exempt subsidized care, and 2) demand, which is the number of children living in households with all parents in the workforce, to understand the supply gap of child care in Onondaga County and compare it across the years. However, it is important to note that our supply data does not count unlicensed, trusted child care alternatives such as family, friends, neighbors, nannies, or au pairs. Additionally, our estimate of supply is based on the capacity of providers, and not the number of children enrolled in child care. Licensed capacity reflects the maximum number of seats allowable by law; it does not necessarily reflect if those seats are fillable. In many cases, inadequate staffing prevents providers from filling all the seats licensed to them.

The findings in this report provide an overview of the child care landscape in Onondaga County based on the most current available data. The aim is to use this knowledge to guide both current and future investments and work toward an equitable child care system that helps support all children in meeting their potential. To briefly summarize the results, the updated data suggests a continued gap in available child care in Onondaga County, with a consistent, significant discrepancy between child care demand and supply for infant and toddler care. At the same time, there has been a large increase in the number of pre-K slots in the county, with more school districts participating in universal pre-K (UPK) than before the pandemic. The report provides details on these findings and our methodological approach.