Nearby Seats

Importance: This index shows whether ECE capacity is sufficient to serve the number of children who live nearby. A key dimension of access is whether there are enough childcare seats. Densely populated areas need more total seats than less populated areas. Some experts in the field define childcare deserts as areas with three or more children potentially competing for each seat. Low scores are desirable on this index.

How We Got This: The nearby seats index (similar to tots per slot) is calculated for each housing lot as the sum of the population-to-capacity ratio for all nearby ECE providers. Capacity is the number of seats a nearby provider is licensed to serve and population is the number of children under age 6 living in the provider’s catchment area. This takes into account the fact that each house has a different number of nearby ECE seats as well as a different number of nearby children who might want to enroll in each seat. Tract-level scores are the average index score (weighted by the number of children estimated to live at each lot) for all housing lots located within that census tract.