Florida Childcare Provider Occupancy

The Florida Division of Early Learning (DEL) received funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to provide grants directly to childcare service providers following the COVID-19 pandemic to stabilize their operations and preserve childcare capacity. All licensed childcare providers in Florida were encouraged to apply for the stabilization funding between October 28, 2022 and February 28, 2023. The ARPA stabilization grant application required applicants to report preferred capacity, enrollment by care level (ages of children served), and indicate if they had a waiting list for each age-group served. The DEL exported the ARPA applications data and shared them with the Early Childhood Policy Research Group (ECPRG) at the University of Florida Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies to support analyses to describe the state of childcare capacity and occupancy.

Users may view results by care-level through the menu button in the top-right corner and may turn on-and-off provider layers. To view providers who report a lower Occupancy Rate and a waiting list, turn off the “Provider” layer and maintain the “Low Occupancy, Waiting List” layer.

While interpreting results, please note the following:

• Occupancy Rate greater than 100%. Most likely indicates providers who enroll children in shifts (i.e., two part-time children using one full-time slot) or a data entry error.
• Occupancy Rate below 80% and waiting list. Provides evidence that for some providers, the lower Occupancy Rate is not caused by limited demand but instead by an internal business factor which limits capacity, such as challenges in maintaining workforce.