Think Child Care is Hard to Find? It’s Even Tougher for Children, Parents with Disabilities

Year-long waits, cold calls that end in goose chases, and a lot of worry. While many parents struggle to find child care, parents of children with disabilities (and parents with disabilities themselves) often face additional challenges.

For a new report, we heard from parents about the barriers they face in finding and using child care. Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report. We also published an Easy Read version of the report to make it more accessible for certain people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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Why is it so much harder to find child care for children who have disabilities?

About 2.2 million children (aged 5 and under) have a physical, intellectual, or developmental disability. This is about 10% of children in this age group. Parents of children in this group described a range of challenges in finding child care and said their children faced barriers to participating fully.

Information about programs is hard to find. Parents said resources and information is hard to track down. Websites about a child care program may not include information about accessibility or supports for children with disabilities, for example. One parent told us that cold calling programs to get more information felt like a “wild goose chase.”

Another said, “I stay up until 2 in the morning looking for child care opportunities, writing anyone and everyone. Sending emails to lawyers…leaving phone message for the superintendent. This is our life.”

Not enough spots available. Competing to get into a child care program is not new. But for parents of a child with a disability, spots may be even more limited—especially in programs that can care for children with disabilities.

To access these programs, parents described sometimes years-long wait lists, long commutes, and having to quit their jobs or move to another community to access care.

Limited full-time programs. When parents do find a program and get a spot, these programs are often not full-time. A lower percentage of parents of children with disabilities reported that their child covered their work hours very well compared to parents of children without disabilities. As a result, parents may have reduced their work hours to pick up kids midday or care for them in the afternoons. Many families also relied on a combination of extended family, child care centers, special education preschools, and home health aides or nurses to ensure their children get the right care.

Restrictive eligibility requirements. Many child care programs require children to be toilet trained by age 3. For some parents of children with disabilities—this can be an automatic disqualifier for their child. Potty training can be more difficult for children with autism or visual disabilities.

Challenges participating. After managing to find child care for their children with disabilities, parents said their children faced barriers to fully participating in their programs. 

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Parents with disabilities also struggle finding and keeping child care

There are about 3 million parents with disabilities, who also have a child aged 5 and under. These parents told us they struggle to find child care facilities that have, for example, a ramp or other wheelchair access. This can make visiting their child’s program or participating in child care events difficult.

Parents told us about difficulties communicating with their child care provider. For example, a deaf parent shared that their child care program did not allow teachers to email parents and did not have a sign language interpreter available. As a result, the parent had very little information about how their child was doing day-to-day in class. Parents also said they experienced exclusion or disparaging comments from staff or other parents. One parent told us they did not disclose their disability with their child’s program “for fear of discrimination.”

Many parents also said they lacked reliable transportation to get to and from their child’s child care program. 

Other resources available to help these families 

The Departments of Health and Human Services and Education have several resources available that may help families with disabilities and child care providers. For example, HHS’s childcare.gov webpage on services for children with disabilities helps educate parents on how to advocate for their child. It outlines a child’s legal rights for supports and services and eligibility requirements for early intervention programs.

Making families with disabilities aware of what is out there is key. We found that HHS and Education could better coordinate their efforts—particularly getting the word out about Education's Parent Training and Information Centers. These centers are available in every state and offer a clearinghouse of information for families with disabilities. For example, parents could gain valuable information about the services their child with a disability is entitled to.

You can learn more about these resources and others in our new report. You can also check out our Easy Read version of this report.

• GAO’s fact-based, nonpartisan information helps Congress and federal agencies improve government. The WatchBlog lets us contextualize GAO’s work a little more for the public. Check out more of our posts at GAO.gov/blog.