Discover actionable insights to inform policy, advocacy, and community solutions to improve access to affordable child care for Connecticut's families. Join us for a webinar presenting findings from Connecticut’s first RAPID Survey of parents with young children, along with an analysis of childcare affordability across the state.
To contextualize the RAPID Survey results, CTData analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) to answer the question: What percentage of Connecticut families can afford market-rate, center-based care for all their young children?
Some of the key findings from the data:
Only half of income-eligible families have applied for a Care 4 Kids subsidy.
Most surveyed families spend more than 7% of their household income on childcare—the federal benchmark for affordability.
About 90% of families would need to spend more than 7% of their income to pay market rates for full-time, center-based care.
Nearly one-third of families spend three months or more searching for childcare.
Lower-income families are more likely to experience longer childcare searches.
The webinar will include a walkthrough of our interactive dashboard, which allows users to explore results by demographic group and county.
Conducted with 17 community organizations, the survey gathered input from over 1,800 caregivers of children under age six across Connecticut in May 2024. It covers childcare access, affordability, subsidies, and satisfaction.
This work was funded and directed by The Connecticut Project, in partnership with Stanford University and the CTData Collaborative.
About the presenters:
Courtney Parkerson serves as a Director at The Connecticut Project. She partners with grantees, organizations, and community members to better understand the lived experiences of Connecticut families and works to advance both personal and systemic outcomes.
Jill Walsh is the Senior GIS & Data Analyst at CTData, where she specializes in geospatial and data analysis. Her work helps translate complex datasets into meaningful insights that support informed decision-making across the state.
Cynthia Willner leads research efforts at CTData as the Director of Research. She oversees projects that gather and analyze data to guide the development of effective policies and programs in Connecticut.