Closing the Gap
An Assessment of Indiana's Early Learning Opportunities
Since 2021, Early Learning Indiana’s Closing the Gap report has analyzed early learning access at the statewide, county and tract levels. Through this report, we can better understand families’ ability to access high-quality, affordable early learning and trends in access over time. This year, we draw upon four years of findings, including the most recent analysis conducted in 2024.
Closing the Gap
An Assessment of Indiana's Early Learning Opportunities
Since 2021, Early Learning Indiana’s Closing the Gap report has analyzed early learning access at the statewide, county and tract levels. Through this report, we can better understand families’ ability to access high-quality, affordable early learning and trends in access over time. This year, we draw upon four years of findings, including the most recent analysis conducted in 2024.
The Findings
Access
The four components of capacity, quality, affordability and choice come together to create the access index. Modest, steady improvements have been observed in the access index, which stood at 60.6 in 2021 and increased to 63.8 in 2024. Statewide access remains moderate, with county-level scores varying from 27.3 to 76.7.
Indiana’s Capacity Compared to Children 0-5 Likely Needing Care
Indiana’s High-Quality Early Learning Capacity
Indiana’s Overall Cost-to-Income Ratio
Programs Who Serve Infants and Toddlers
Indiana’s Capacity Compared to Children 0-5 Likely Needing Care
Indiana’s High-Quality Early Learning Capacity
Indiana’s Overall Cost-to-Income Ratio
Programs Who Serve Infants and Toddlers
EARLY LEARNING ACCESS INDEX
The Early Learning Access Index summarizes a statistical analysis of families’ abilities to access high-quality care across the state. Scaled from 0 to 100, it combines four elements into one composite score.
Capacity Index
Quality
Index
Affordability Index
Choice
Index
The 2024 index stands at 63.8, an increase from 60.6 when the Index began in 2021. Wide variation exists, with access scores at the county level ranging from 76.7 in Lake County to 27.3 in Fountain County. Currently, 27 counties have moderate access to care (scores between 60-80) and no counties have adequate access (scores higher than 80).
Since 2021, Jefferson (+24.7), Decatur (+23.8) and Orange (+20.0) counties have experienced the largest increases in access scores.
Figure 1 : Early Learning Access Index by County
*Explore the graph below to see a year by year comparison of statewide and county access. Use the tool bar to filter by county.
Variation in access scores also exists at the tract level, with scores ranging from 17.07 to 87.23. At this level, we also see several tracts reaching adequate access within their local communities.
CAPACITY
Capacity represents the seats available for children estimated to be in need of care. Through the capacity sufficiency rate, or CSR, this report compares children likely requiring care to the regulated capacity in a given area. We estimate the number of children needing care based on census data about the proportion of children living in two-parent households with both parents working and single parent homes with one parent employed. Since 2021, the statewide CSR has increased from 55.8% to 62.3%. Currently, there are enough seats to serve about 203,000 of the roughly 326,000 children likely needing care (62.3%).
In recent months, several initiatives have addressed the capacity shortfall. These efforts include:
Child Care Expansion Grants
Program through the State of Indiana. A total of $10 million in grants were awarded to 24 programs across the state, with the goal of expanding existing programs and creating new programs in underserved areas. Grantees have proposed to add more than 1,800 seats across 20 counties.
Early Years Initiative
Grants supported by philanthropic support, aimed at improving learning and development outcomes for infants and toddlers. As part of this work, 68 grantees received funding to expand capacity by an additional 2,700 seats over the next several years.
Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund
Grants issued by the State, which provided funding to employers seeking to expand child care supply or invest in other benefits. Through two rounds of funding, about $25 million was provided to businesses representing a diverse set of rural and urban communities.
Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI)
Grants through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. As part of a broader, regional investment strategy, more than $8 million in early learning investments were funded through READI, with more than $19 million raised in matching funds. These funds are being used for capacity building efforts, including building renovations and construction, among other early childhood education related initiatives.
Table 1 below presents the counties with the highest capacity sufficiency rates in 2024 and those who have experienced the most positive growth since 2021. In total, 61 of 92 counties statewide have increased their capacity sufficiency rates over the last four years.
Table 1: Highest Capacity Sufficiency and Most Growth
| County | CSR |
|---|---|
| Lake | 104.0% |
| Marion | 98.2% |
| Ohio | 89.8% |
| Bartholomew | 83.9% |
| Delaware | 82.7% |
| County | CSR | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Lake | 104.0% | +49.0% |
| Jefferson | 62.9% | +36.3% |
| Wabash | 66.2% | +30.0% |
| Brown | 47.4% | +24.2% |
| Shelby | 81.1% | +20.6% |
CSR can also be viewed at a more granular, census tract level. As with county CSRs, tract level rates vary widely from 0.9% to 3346.9%. Tract population density, or urbanicity, plays an important role in the local capacity available. Tract urbanicity and capacity are positively correlated (c=40.7%), meaning that more urban areas tend to have higher CSRs. While more research is needed to confirm causality, this could be due to centers and other programs serving larger numbers of children being located in more densely populated areas, with rural areas more frequently serviced by smaller, disperse in-home providers.
Importantly, our estimates of young children who need care are based on those living in two-adult families in which both adults work or one-adult households with that adult working. Using adult employment as our guide to child care needs may underestimate those families who access programs specifically for early learning needs unrelated to adult employment, such as developmental and social preparation for entering kindergarten. It also may overestimate needs in areas where unregulated care from family members or nannies is more prevalent. Future research efforts should aim to more precisely identify capacity needs as it relates to all young children, not just those living in working families.
Capacity in Action: Pulaski County
One week after the official formation of the Quality Childcare Coalition, another child care provider shuttered its doors permanently – the third Pulaski County child care program to do so in six months.
“Our coalition’s timing was both wonderful and awful,”
said Leann Wright, Community Foundation of Pulaski County (CFPC) executive director. “Our county was in crisis and people were panicking. At the same time, we knew the coalition needed to focus on long-term, sustainable solutions and not just a quick fix.”
Local employers and community organizations joined together, and the CFPC was awarded $750,000 in grants from the State of Indiana’s Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund. The money was used to support new programs in both Winamac and Francesville, while also delivering support to those interested in starting new programs, especially in-home providers located in rural areas.
Wright envisions a future in which all of Pulaski County’s children are prepared for kindergarten, and the formation of the Quality Childcare Coalition represents a big step toward that goal. “The coalition brings a diverse set of voices to the table. We have representation from employers, parents, in-home providers, centers,” Wright said. “Everyone is committed to hanging in there and doing the work to keep things moving forward to make our vision a reality.”
QUALITY
Indiana’s Paths to QUALITY (PTQ) rating system measures the quality of care within participating programs. The system rates programs on a scale from 1 to 4, in which programs participating at levels 3 or 4 are considered high-quality. At these levels, programs are using planned curricula to guide learning and may also be nationally accredited. Because PTQ is a voluntary program, programs that have not opted to participate may or may not be operating at high-quality levels.
Of regulated programs included in this analysis, 63.0% are participating in PTQ at any level. A smaller proportion (40.2%) of all regulated programs have achieved a high-quality distinction. In total, high-quality programs have the capacity to serve approximately 107,000 children. This represents 52.7% of existing program capacity, and these programs can serve about 32.8% of those children needing care.
Figure 2: High-Quality Capacity as a Proportion of Total Capacity Needed
*Includes all programs regulated by Family Social Services Administration (FSSA)or programs in public schools know to the Department of Education
Statewide, the proportion of capacity that is high-quality has increased from 46.1% in 2021 to 52.7% in 2024, while rates at the county level vary from 90.7% to 2.1%. The table below presents counties able to serve the highest and lowest proportions of children within high-quality programs.
Table 2: Percent of Children Able to Be Served Within High-Quality Programs
| County | High-Quality CSR |
|---|---|
| Lake | 58.0% |
| Ohio | 56.4% |
| Marion | 52.0% |
| Delaware | 47.3% |
| Jefferson | 47.3% |
| County | High-Quality CSR |
|---|---|
| Switzerland | 0.7% |
| Carroll | 2.0% |
| Jay | 5.8% |
| Fayette | 5.8% |
| Fountain | 5.9% |
System-wide efforts to promote, coach and reward programs for participating in Paths to QUALITY have been ongoing for several years. One recent effort includes Early Learning Indiana’s Closing the Gap advancement grants, which were awarded to programs participating in PTQ at Levels 1 or 2. These $5,000 awards, made possible by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., were used by programs for classroom materials, curriculum and staff training hours. Through this effort alone, more than 100 programs advanced at least one PTQ level.
Indiana’s Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning encourages participation in PTQ by offering technical assistance to help providers navigate the costs and benefits of PTQ level advancement through a contract with SPARK Learning Lab. The State also incentivizes PTQ advancement by reimbursing high-quality providers at an elevated rate.
In late 2023, Indiana’s Early Learning Advisory Committee recommended changes to the Paths to Quality system to simplify the measures to those that matter most for child learning and development. Implementation of these changes is expected to take place in the coming months.
Quality in Action: Clinton County
Using funds from Early Learning Indiana’s Closing the Gap Advancement Grant, Early Academy Childcare in Clinton County quickly moved from Level 2 to Level 3 on Indiana’s PTQ rating system. Funded classroom items like sensory tables, dry erase boards, kinetic sand and alphabet molds alongside a high-quality curriculum reinforce important concepts like letter and numeral recognition through informal play. The resources that make these learning activities possible have made an enormous impact on the classroom. “The funds have allowed me to completely transform my existing classroom space and provide many more educational opportunities for the kids,” said Muriel Grigsby, owner of the program.
Early Academy Childcare is one of a few licensed home child care providers in Rossville and will soon offer full-day preschool to children ages 3 and up. While the materials and curriculum have given the children exciting new ways to stretch their growing skills, it has also given Muriel new inspiration and renewed support for her work. “I feel confident in my teaching ability, and having the resources to back that up definitely helps with a feeling of excitement for this profession,” she said. “I have worked with kids for more than 25 years and I have a renewed sense of passion in my career as a licensed family child care provider because of this grant. I am happy. Not every child care provider can say that and truly mean it.”
AFFORDABILITY
In 2024, the average cost of care for one child is $8,590, with the amount increasing for multiple children or specialized types of care. As a state, the cost of care and median family incomes have risen over time, resulting in modest fluctuations in the cost-to-income ratio for families. Currently, care for one child represents 11.2% of median family income, with sharp variations at the county and tract levels.
Figure 3: Cost of Care and Cost-to-Income Ratio Over Time
While high-quality care tends to be more costly to provide and therefore more expensive to families, there isn’t always a clear relationship between affordability and high-quality capacity at the county level. The table below illustrates the counties with the highest and lowest cost-to-income ratios.
Table 3: Lowest and Highest Cost-to-Income Ratios
| County | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Union | 5.3% |
| Daviess | 7.3% |
| Spencer | 7.3% |
| Warrick | 7.4% |
| Martin | 7.4% |
| County | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Madison | 14.9% |
| Starke | 14.3% |
| LaPorte | 14.2% |
| Lake | 14.1% |
| Marion | 14.0% |
Families with qualifying incomes may also be eligible for subsidized care through programs such as CCDF, On My Way Pre-K or Head Start/Early Head Start. Recently, the state began offering CCDF vouchers to workers in early learning programs whose family income falls at or below 85% of state median income. The goal of this program is to build supply to enable more families to access child care services, especially those families leveraging subsidies to pay tuition. In 84 counties, the subsidized capacity sufficiency rate is near (90%+) or above 100%, indicating that there is theoretically more than enough capacity to serve children needing subsidized care. However, programs must make business decisions and balance their subsidized offerings alongside private pay families also needing care.
Affordability in Action: Wabash County
Sustaining affordable child care requires balancing the expenses of operating a program, including paying educators competitive wages, alongside making tuition affordable for families. Julie Garber, Community Foundation of Wabash County vice president for strategic initiatives, emphasizes the need to approach child care challenges from multiple angles. “So many grant resources offered are focused on building child care capacity, and that’s certainly necessary,” said Garber. “But we also need to work on the issue of keeping a child care workforce employed, because it was largely low wages that were preventing us from keeping our programs open.”
The foundation and its First Five initiative recently developed a two-phase campaign to raise the wages of child care workers in Wabash County. In phase one, the foundation offered grants to licensed providers who committed to increasing wages to $15/hour, making up the difference between the provider’s previous wages and the new amount. In phase two, the foundation encouraged providers to raise tuition in order to sustain the higher wages – with the foundation coming alongside with grants to subsidize costs so that families aren’t priced out of care.
“Our well-resourced families are able to afford care in most cases, and our families that receive the CCDF voucher get assistance in subsidizing the cost,” Garber said. “But there’s a whole group of families in the middle who don’t qualify for vouchers but struggle to pay for care. We’re seeing many families at the top of what they are able to pay, and when that happens, we see many parents start to stay home or migrate to a babysitting environment instead of a licensed program.”
The foundation piloted phase two last year with support from a $750,000 grant from Indiana’s Employer-Sponsored Child Care Fund. Employees who work for a company that belongs to local chambers Manchester Alive or Grow Wabash County can apply for discounted rates at licensed child care centers, registered child care ministries or licensed home child care programs. “We had wonderful uptake on that program, it was very well-received,” said Garber. “We’re hoping that’s a positive sign as we expand into our second phase – we’re calling it Operation Change the Future.”
CHOICE
Early learning programs throughout Indiana represent a diverse mix of provider types, including in-home family child care providers, faith-based care, child care centers and private and public schools. This mix allows families to make choices about what type of care most fits their children’s needs. However, choices are more limited in some areas of the state. In five counties, there are no center-based programs within an effective radius. Three counties have no nearby family child care homes.
The second aspect of choice we consider is the prevalence of infant and toddler care, an age group that is both demanding and expensive to serve. Statewide, the proportion of programs serving this age group has held steady over time, moving from 70.5% of programs in 2021 to 71.0% in 2024. The largest gains over time were demonstrated in Warren (+50%) and Benton (+40%) counties.
The third and final choice component examines care provided during non-traditional hours, including services outside the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. This factor becomes particularly important in areas that have higher workforce participation in healthcare or manufacturing, which often require second and third shift work hours. Since 2021, the proportion of programs offering nontraditional care has modestly declined, from 28.0% to 26.5%.
At the tract level, urban areas tend to have a higher choice index than rural areas. Urban areas more easily support non-traditional service hours and a more diverse mix of provider types, whereas rural areas may find it more difficult or less necessary to sustain larger-centered based programs.
Figure 4: Provider Type Across Indiana
Choice in Action: Southeast Indiana
The Southeastern Indiana YMCA is playing a vital role in addressing the need for high-quality infant care in the Batesville area. In 2021, the organization faced difficult decisions regarding its infant care program due to funding constraints and the challenges of maintaining the required low infant-to-teacher ratios. The infant program was discontinued, leaving a gap in the community’s early childhood care offerings. Today, supported in part by a grant through Early Learning Indiana’s Early Years Initiative, the YMCA has reopened and reimagined its infant room, expanding care and enhancing professional development for teachers.
McKenzie Callahan, YMCA childcare director, led the effort to outfit the room, train staff and create a nurturing environment for infants. It was an exceptionally special experience for her because her own newborn daughter is now one of the infants served in the program.
The team took the opportunity to strengthen the infant curriculum to coincide with the reopening. In partnership with Building Blocks, which operates a regional training center dedicated to improving child outcomes, the team implemented the Creative Curriculum® for Infants. This curriculum allows educators to individualize learning for each child during this critical period of rapid development and emphasizes the early childhood language development essential for fostering cognitive growth. A weekly coach visits the facility to work with teachers on lesson planning and curriculum implementation, and the center is participating in a research study to assess and improve the program’s effectiveness. Teachers use a series of structured assessments, providing rich sources of data for tracking each child’s developmental progress.
“Center-wide, we’re just really excited about the partnership with Building Blocks,” said Callahan. “We have a lot of really neat things happening, building quality through the new curriculum.”
Particularly in rural areas, the addition of a single classroom makes an immediate impact, especially for infants and toddlers. Southeastern Indiana YMCA continues to be a cornerstone of child care for local families, thanks to its collaborative approach and emphasis on quality.
CONCLUSION
While progress has been made over the past four years in improving the state’s access score, continued work needs to be done. The visual below represents the four components of the access score. At the statewide level, the affordability measure scores the highest, while quality lags behind, despite recent gains.
Figure 5: Indiana Access Score
The data provided in this report serves as an update on the progress made to ensuring access to high-quality, affordable care for all young children. Community-level improvement efforts are ongoing and include participation from coalitions, employers, government leaders, educators and families. While these efforts serve similar goals, their tactics vary based on the needs of their communities. At the county-level, each access score represents a unique mix of strengths and challenges. For example, Boone County excels at providing care that’s affordable for local families. However, it has lower capacity and quality indices respectively, representing opportunities for growth in those areas. In contrast, Tippecanoe County is more equally balanced across the four components of the access index, with their lowest scores representing both capacity and choice.
With this knowledge, we can further target our efforts to improve access as a state and within local communities, ensuring that children have the best opportunity to access early learning opportunities that help them thrive in their early years and beyond.