Children with long-term conditions or disabilities: Why some are not in non-parental child care

Allison Leanage and Rubab Arim

Economic and Social Reports from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch

Abstract: Using data from the 2023 Survey on Early Learning and Child Care Arrangements–Children with Long-Term Conditions or Disabilities, this study aimed to identify potential barriers to participating in child care among children with long-term conditions or disabilities who do not regularly attend non-parental child care. Compared with child care users, non-users were less likely to have parents with a paid job or business (38% of non-users vs. 77% of users), less likely to have parents with a bachelor’s degree or higher (32% of non-users vs. 46% of users), and less likely to live in two-parent families (78% of non-users vs. 84% of users). Parents of non-users who looked for child care were more likely than those of child care users to report difficulty finding affordable child care (54% of non-users whose parents looked for care vs. 39% of users), subsidized child care (43% vs. 32%), and care that meets their child’s needs because of disability or chronic illness (29% vs. 12%). While the most frequently reported reason for not using child care varied by whether parents were seeking child care, a shortage of places or waitlists (34%) was the most frequently reported reason for not using child care among non-users whose parents looked for child care. Overall, in 2023, availability and affordability remained as potential barriers to participating in child care among children with long-term conditions or disabilities whose parents looked for child care.

Keywords: child care; disabilities; conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06-25
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2025006/article/00002-eng.htm (text/html)
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2025006/article/00002-eng.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:stc:stcp8e:202500600002e

DOI: 10.25318/36280001202500600002-eng

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic and Social Reports from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies and Modelling Branch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Brown ().