Factors Related to Arrangement Choice

Students are placed in various child care arrangements for a number of reasons. Parents of sampled students were asked to report how students were transported to their care arrangements, and to rate the importance of various care selection factors.

• Students in kindergarten through eighth grade who go to a school- or center-based arrangement in a location other than the place where they attended school were more likely to be transported to their school- or center-based arrangement by their parents or guardians (15 percent) than by the school district (6 percent), the school- or center-based program (9 percent), or any other transportation source (11 percent) (table 11).
• Parents of sampled students in kindergarten through eighth grade were more likely to report reliability⁴ as "very important" in selecting an after-school care arrangement (90 percent) than to report that the location of the arrangement (78 percent), cost (44 percent), learning activities at the arrangement (61 percent), time spent with other students (55 percent), availability of the care provider (81 percent), or the number of children in the group (37 percent) were very important (table 12).

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⁴ The meaning of "reliability" was not provided unless a respondent specifically asked for clarification. If a respondent asked for clarification, he or she was told that reliability might include timeliness of the caregiver, ability to care for the child on the agreed upon dates and times, and carrying out care taking duties while the child was in care.