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With growing public investment in early childhood services, families enrolled in Head Start (HS) have increasing opportunities to participate in other public early care and education (ECE) programs. Using integrated administrative data from across Iowa's service systems, we examined the prevalence and predictors of HS children's multiple concurrent ECE service utilization the year before entering kindergarten, focusing on state pre-K and child care subsidy (CCS). Results showed that 61 % of children participating in HS additionally utilized other public ECE programs, with 44 % participating in state pre-K, 8.3 % in CCS, and 8.7 % in both. Utilization patterns differed based on child and family characteristics. Children who were Black, living in urban areas, or born to single mothers were more likely to participate in multiple, concurrent services, especially a combination of services that included CCS. Results imply that improving coordination and collaboration across various ECE public programs may support HS families' needs.
Betancur et al. (Thu,) studied this question.