The Distribution of Children With Child Care Scholarships Across Maryland's ECE Programs

This research brief examines the extent to which early care and education (ECE) programs in Maryland serve children who receive care paid for by a Child Care Scholarship (CCS). The brief highlights key findings from analyses of Maryland child care licensing and child care scholarship administrative data from Spring 2026. It provides information on where children with a scholarship receive care, what percent of center and family child care providers had children with a scholarship enrolled in care, and the average share of ECE programs’ licensed capacity occupied by children whose enrollment is funded through CCS (known as “scholarship density”). Differences in scholarship density by ages of children served, program quality rating, and program size are also discussed.

Key Findings

• The majority of centers in Maryland (67%) serve at least one child with a scholarship, whereas only 41 percent of family child care providers do so.
• Regardless of type of care, ECE providers that serve children with scholarships tend to have a low scholarship density (less than one-quarter of children in care are paid for by scholarship).
• For both centers and family child care providers, scholarship density is similar regardless of Maryland EXCELS rating.
• Among centers, larger programs and centers that serve either school-age or combined age groups are more likely to have children with a scholarship enrolled than smaller programs or those serving only preschool-age children.
• Among family child care providers, those that serve all age groups (infant through school-age) were most likely to have children with a scholarship enrolled.