Adapting to Policy Changes: Private Early Care and Education (ECE) Providers’ Responses to Chicago’s Public Preschool Expansion and Illinois’ Smart Start Workforce Grants

Public investments in early care and education can reshape private ECE markets, but their provider-level effects are unclear. This research examines how Chicago’s citywide public preschool expansion for 4-year-olds and Illinois’ Smart Start Workforce Grants (wage supplements) affect private licensed ECE providers’ operations, finances, survival, and participation in subsidy programs like CCAP. Grounded in economic and organizational theory, the mixed-methods study combines administrative data, surveys, and interviews. Quantitative analyses use survival models and interrupted time series to measure changes in openings, closures, enrollment, and finances; qualitative interviews reveal mechanisms behind provider decisions. Findings will inform how supply-side policies influence provider stability, service distribution, and equitable access within mixed-delivery urban ECE systems.