Project Summary / Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many existing inequalities, including access to
child care, education, and family support services. Children in low-income families and
minorities, already vulnerable, were overrepresented in areas with high rates of pandemic-
induced child care center closures. This is especially concerning in a context where children
exposed to environmental risk factors like poverty and maltreatment face significant barriers in
early identification of developmental disorders and early intervention. Child care centers can be
instrumental for timely identification and reporting developmental delays, and early intervention
is key to prevent further developmental disorders. Early education and quality child care have
been found to help vulnerable children’s development in many dimensions. Therefore, the
potential impact of the pandemic in general, and of childcare center closures in particular, on
vulnerable children’s development is concerning. To date, little is known about the quantitative
impact of these disruptions on vulnerable children’s outcomes.
The purpose of the proposed analysis is to measure the effects of decreased access to
child care centers during the pandemic on COVID-19 pandemic on developmental screening
outcomes of infants and toddlers in low-income and at-risk families who receive services from a
home visitation program. In a context of pre-existing inequities, this project also seeks to
elucidate how structural inequalities disproportionately hurting low-income families and racial-
ethnic minorities affect this impact. Inferring causality about these issues is typically challenging
because a family’s characteristics that affect its childcare options and location decisions may
also determine the child’s developmental outcomes. To tackle this issue, we will exploit the
geographic variation in disruptions in child care centers closures during the pandemic as a
natural experiment generating exogenous variation in availability.
Correctly assessing any expected deteriorations in the developmental progress of
vulnerable and at-risk children in these communities is crucial to determine early intervention
actions that can address this issue. Results from this work will increase our understanding of the
potential long-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis via its effect on vulnerable children.
Our findings will also speak to the broader issue of the consequences of structural inequalities
and lack of family support for our children’s development, and can serve as guidelines for
policies and health initiatives targeted at vulnerable children and their families.
