Examining the Role of Public Pre-K Expansions in the Changing Supply of Child Care in Wisconsin

Across the United States, the supply of child care is changing, and for many states, this includes a decline in family child care. Family child care and center-based care offer different advantages for families, making declines-within sectors of care and overall-concerning for families and policy makers. We use longitudinal administrative data from Wisconsin to examine how public prekindergarten program expansion contributes to changes in supply, defined as both the number of licensed providers and capacity in licensed child-care sectors. Using county and year fixed effects models, we find that prekindergarten enrollment rates are negatively associated with licensed family child-care supply but are not associated with licensed center-based supply. We conclude with a discussion of how states can design early care and education policies to support the capacity of licensed child care.