Child Care Misalignment Among Families With Child Care Scholarships in Maryland

This brief presents findings from a survey of families who applied for child care subsidies through Maryland’s Child Care Scholarship (CCS) Program in April 2025 and received a scholarship at some point from April to June 2025. Scholarships provide financial assistance to help eligible working, training, or student families pay for child care and early education. Scholarships pay for care at licensed/registered providers^[1] or with approved informal providers.

We describe the extent to which the child care used by parents receiving CCS aligned with the child care they needed or preferred, based on survey items from the Misalignment Index. The Misalignment Index is a survey tool based on Child Trends’ Access Framework, which asks parents to rate: (1) the importance of specific features of child care and (2) whether the features they rate as important are present in their current care arrangement. This method allows us to determine which specific aspects of child care are misaligned with parents’ needs and preferences. More information about the Misalignment Index is available on the ECE Access Center webpage.

Results show that parents are typically aligned in their preferences and experiences when it comes to the child care features they value most: location, quality, schedule, and cost. However, some parents make important trade-offs when it comes to the care they select for their children.

Key Findings

• We asked parents to select their top three reasons for selecting their current child care provider funded via a scholarship. Most parents prioritized some combination of location, quality of care, schedule, and cost.
• The most common areas of misalignment were hours/scheduling, quality, and child care provider type.
• • Flexible and morning hours were the most needed accommodation in terms of hours of operation, and most parents who needed flexible hours received that accommodation.
  • Although relatively few parents said they needed evening and weekend hours, those who did experienced the largest gaps in access.
  • Over half of parents said that quality was one of their top reasons for selecting their current provider. One of the top-rated elements of quality was the provider’s use of high-quality learning materials and curricula.
  • Most parents (66%) used care that aligned with their preferences and needs regarding quality features. However, some parents (15%) used care that did not have the quality features that they rated as crucially important.
  • Most parents (76%) indicated that their current provider was one of their preferred provider types. However, some families who received a scholarship were not using their preferred provider type.