Licensed Center-Based Child Care Providers in New Jersey:

INTRODUCTION

Center-based child care providers in New Jersey (NJ) deliver critical early care and education (ECE) services to families that support the development of children ages 0 to 5, as well as their caregivers’ ability to work; and they are an integral piece of the state’s ECE ecosystem. However, it is often challenging for families to access providers that meet their multitude of needs, as the supply of center-based providers is limited in many places and varies in terms of the features they offer (Sandstrom et al., 2024; Stephens et al., 2024). To identify policies and resources that may address supply gaps in the child care system in NJ, more knowledge is needed about the services and characteristics of center-based providers in the state.

This report focuses on the characteristics, enrollment, and capacity of licensed center-based providers. This research is part of a larger series of reports aimed at providing a descriptive portrait of licensed center-based child care providers in NJ using data from a state-wide survey of 1,300 child care center directors. This survey was conducted between October 2023 and September 2024 by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). Topics covered on this survey included provider characteristics (i.e., children served, auspice, classrooms, enrollment), non-teaching and teaching staff, and revenue and expenses. This effort is part of a multi-center collaborative project with the Center for Women and Work and the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with support and collaboration from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (NJ DCF).

In this report, we present results of survey questions focusing on the ages of children served, operating schedules, enrollment, and capacity of licensed center-based providers.1 Additional reports cover centers’ staffing, and revenue and expenses. The findings in this report offer insights into the center-based provider supply in NJ that can be used to identify areas where families may encounter more constrained access and inform mechanisms to strengthen the ECE system in the state.
 

KEY FINDINGS

• Licensed center-based child care providers in New Jersey primarily served preschool-age children, with 2
  out of 3 providers also serving infant- and toddler-age children (those under 3 years old).
• More than half of centers were for-profit, and/or independently owned and operated.
• Three out of 4 centers were open year-round (43 or more weeks per year). Most centers were open 5
  days per week, and 81% of providers were open 9 or more hours per day.
• Nine out of 10 centers were open from 8 AM through 3 PM, less than a quarter were open before 7 AM,
  and only 17% were open through 6 PM.
• Two out of 10 centers indicated they had classrooms contracted for state pre-k, and on average had 5
  contracted classrooms.
• On average centers enrolled a total of 62 children ages 0 to 5 years. Depending on ages served, they
  enrolled an average of 26 infant- and toddler-age children, 46 preschool- age children, and/or 25 schoolage
  children.
• About 32% of centers’ enrollment was dual language learner children, and 4% were children with
  identified special education needs.
• On average, centers were enrolled at 73% of their total reported capacity, with nearly half (45%)
  reporting enrollment under 75% of their total capacity.
• Within the year prior, nearly half of centers reported they had placed children on a waitlist because there
  were no available slots (46%), and another 14% reported they turned away children.