The Early Childhood Care and Education Landscape in Ascending Neighborhoods

This paper descriptively documents the early childhood care and education (ECE) landscape in neighborhoods that experienced socioeconomic (SES) ascent and descent in the Chicago Metropolitan Area (MSA) between 2009 and 2019. Using data from the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map and the American Community Survey, we analyze changes in ECE seats across provider types. SES ascent was most prevalent in Cook County, where zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) that ascended had a greater increase in ECE seats than the rest of the MSA. We do not find statistically significant differences in ECE availability between descending and stable ZCTAs, regardless of their location within the MSA. We also find little evidence that SES neighborhood change is associated with changes in the supply of Head Start or ECE capacity measured as the number of children per seat. Our study contributes to urban and educational research by highlighting how neighborhood SES change intersects with ECE access.