Access to
Early Childhood Education and Care in Hawaiʻi

Affordable, conveniently located, and high quality early childhood care and education (ECE) supports the well-being of children, families, and communities.

Working parents need childcare, while strong ECE programs give young children a solid foundation for healthy development and lifelong learning.

Affordable, conveniently located, and high quality early childhood care and education (ECE) supports the well-being of children, families, and communities. Working parents need childcare, while strong ECE programs give young children a solid foundation for healthy development and lifelong learning.

Equitable deployment of ECE resources requires an accurate understanding of where needs are greatest. This is even more important now, as Hawaiʻi moves towards universal access to ECE by 2032, starting first with children in underserved communities. This web tool provides the fine-grained data needed to inform the planning and strategic expansion of ECE services. Policymakers, advocates and ECE providers are among the intended users.

This web tool uses maps to tell the story of Hawaiʻi’s ECE landscape. Where are ECE seats located? Are there enough seats? Are they affordable? And are they of high quality?

User-selected maps show information about ECE providers, three different access indexes, and a combined index.

  • Providers

  • Nearby Seats

  • Affordability

  • Quality

  • Combined

The ECE access indexes are family-centered, i.e., they show different aspects of ECE services within a set commuting time or distance from a typical family home. The indexes also adjust for supply and demand: calculations include both the number of ECE seats and the number of young children living nearby.

Instruction for Navigation

Use the tabs at the top of the page to select the index you want to view. Then pick a map level: (1) At tract level shows data aggregated at the census tract or, (2) At lot level shows fine-grained data at the level of individual housing lots. Once the map opens, use the drop-down menu to show the index at a set driving distance (5 vs. 10 miles) or public transit ride (30 vs. 45 minutes) from a typical family home.


Hawaiʻi at a Glance

There are 4 children under age six for each ECE seat located within 5 miles of their home.

Note: As of September 2019.

The average cost of a nearby seat is 10% of the area’s median family income.

On average, 40% of nearby seats are high quality.

Data Sources

  • Childcare licensing and market survey data, State of Hawaiʻi Department of Human Services and PATCH, September 2019.

  • Median Family Income by Presence of Own Children. U.S. Census Bureau. 2014-2018 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Tables B19125.

  • Population under age 6 years old. U.S. Census Bureau. 2014-2018 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Tables B23008.

  • Parcel Data, Digital Map Products, 2017.