Close to home: Family-centered spatial analysis of access to early care and education

This study addresses the issue of equitable access to early care and education (ECE) taking the state of Hawaiʻi as an example. We used spatially-based measures of demand-adjusted slots, cost burden relative to family income, and quality that quantified the supply of ECE services within a five-mile drive, a ten-mile drive, and a 30-min public transit commute from a family's home. Multivariate spatial modeling techniques were used to predict ECE access at the community level, with median income, county of location, population density, and community ethnic composition as predictors. Results revealed some disparities, such as better slot capacity in areas that were densely populated or had a high share of persons of East Asian heritage. We also found promising results relating to slots and quality in low-income communities. The strategic location of Head Start, public preK, and classrooms sponsored by a local philanthropy created conditions where some low-income communities had very favorable access to ECE slots and high-quality programs, relative to the state overall. The spatial methods used in this study are flexible and can be adapted to answer any number of questions about access to community resources for young children and families at different levels of geographic granularity.