Boston Early Care and Education Supply and Demand Fact Sheet December 2012 Highlights Universal Demand Estimates Boston currently only has enough early care and education supply for 58.8% of its infants and toddlers.1 Boston currently has enough early care and education supply for 76.4% of its preschool age children.2 MA Early Education and Care Waitlist3 Statewide, there are 33,070 young children on the EEC waitlist o 16,707 (50.5%) are infant and toddlers o 16,363 (49.5%) are preschool age In Boston, there are 5,612 young children on the EEC waitlist (17.0% of the entire waitlist) o 3094 (55.1%) are infants and toddlers o 2,518 (44.9%) are preschool age Early Care and Education Demand Population of Young Children4 There are 44,484 children between the ages of 0 and 5 years 4 months in Boston o 21,212 (47.7%) are infants and toddlers o 23,252 (52.2%) are preschool age children Early Care and Education Supply6, 10 19,915 total Boston infant/toddler and preschool capacity5 o 6,241 Boston infant/toddler capacity5 o 13,674 Boston preschool age capacity5 Center-Based Programs6 199 licensed center-based programs in Boston with infant/toddler and preschool slots o 173 community-based programs o 26 Head Start programs o 84 additional programs that have only school age or mixed Kindergarten/school age slots 11,425 total center-based capacity o 3,640 center-based infant/toddler capacity o 7,785 center-based preschool age capacity 92 (46.2%) center-based programs are NAEYC accredited7 Family Child Care Providers6 685 licensed family child care providers in Boston
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4,791 licensed family child care capacity8 30 (4.4%) family child care providers are NAFCC accredited9 Boston Public Schools (BPS)10 70 public schools serving 3- and/or 4-year-olds o 209 public school classrooms serving 3- and/or 4-year-olds 2,805 preschool capacity 17 (24.3%) public schools serving K0 and K1 children are NAEYC accredited11 o Additional 19 public schools in process for accreditation (increasing total to 51.4%)10 Other License Exempt Providers (private, parochial, religious, charter) 30 other license exempt providers serving 3- and/or 4-year-olds12 894 preschool age capacity12 11 (36.7%) other license exempt providers are NEASC accredited13 1
Based on a universal demand of 50% of infants and toddlers needing care. Based on a universal demand of 77% of preschoolers needing care. 3 MA EEC (KinderWait), 12/06/12. 4 Boston Public Health Commission (Birth Records), 2012. http://www.bphc.org/about/research/hob/Pages/Home.aspx 5 Incorporates age estimates for FCC derived by applying 2012 Community Profiles data to known capacity data. 6 MA Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) (Active Provider List – Boston, Chelsea, Revere Area), 2012. http://www.eec.state.ma.us/ChildCareSearch/activeproviders.aspx 7 NAEYC (Accredited Program Search – Boston), 05/27/12. 8 The FCC capacity listed takes into account an estimated proportion of school age children that may be in FCC care. This proportion is estimated with the 2012 Community Profiles enrollment data. 9 NAFCC (Accredited Providers), 07/12. 10 BPS data from 2012-2013 school year, 10/12. 11 NAEYC (Accredited Program Search – Boston), 10/16/12. 12 Due to other license exempt providers’ nature of not being required to report data to regulating bodies, these numbers are likely undercounting the total number and capacity for this type of early care and education provider. 13 NEASC (CIS Directory of Schools), 08/12; no OLE programs were NAEYC accredited. 2
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