Participation Across Public Programs among Children in Low-income Families: Public Preschool, Child Care Subsidies, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Early care and education (ECE) and nutrition assistance programs expand opportunity during early childhood. Although prior research examines participation in individual ECE programs, few investigate how families combine support across programs despite overlap in eligibility, or how nutrition assistance influences these decisions. Using linked administrative data from Virginia (2015-2019), this study examines how low-income families bundle public preschool with child care subsidies, and the extent to which the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) changes that link during the pre-K year. We explore who combines which ECE programs, when combinations occur, and how these patterns relate to hours in ECE using a sample of 176,773 first-time kindergarteners eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. We then focus on 98,965 of these children who participated in SNAP during the pre-K year. Child care subsidy participation is greatest among low-income children in private ECE, but also common in public pre-K, suggesting mismatches between preschool and parent work schedules. Subsidy participation is associated with greater weekly hours in licensed ECE across public, private, and other settings. Black children from low-income households are most likely to attend public ECE and participate in subsidies, whereas Hispanic children are least likely to participate in public ECE, subsidies, and SNAP. We show subsidy timing varies by ECE type: utilization peaks during the academic year for those in private ECE and declines in summer, but ticks up in summer for those in public ECE or other settings. Findings highlight the importance of public program coordination in supporting low-income families.