Pennsylvania Child Care Subsidy Waitlist by County and Month

Children on Pennsylvania's subsidized child care program waiting list, aggregated monthly by county. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Office of Child Development and Early Learning provides this data, which is tabulated from the last day of each month and updated regularly. It includes counts from the 2019 state fiscal year onward.

Use Cases

• Analyze waitlist trends over time using the Month, Year, and State Fiscal Year columns.
• Map demand for child care subsidies across Pennsylvania using County Name, Latitude of County, and Longitude of County.
• Compare waitlist counts by care level (Care Level Name, Care Level Code) and geographic region (Pa House Districts, Pa Senatorial Districts).
• Assess monthly fluctuations in the Number of Children on the Child Care Waiting List for specific counties (County FIPS Code).

Strengths

• Contains geospatial coordinates (Latitude of County, Longitude of County) for mapping.
• Includes multiple geographic breakdowns (County, School District, Municipality).
• Provides monthly time-series data from State Fiscal Year 2019 onward.

Limitations

• Row count and total sample size are unknown.
• Data is a monthly snapshot which may not reflect intra-month changes.
• Potential for duplicate entries for children in shared custody situations as noted in the description.

Provenance

Source

Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Office of Child Development and Early Learning.

Collection Method

Tabulated from administrative records of the Child Care Works subsidized program.

Time Range

From State Fiscal Year 2019 to present.

Freshness

Updated regularly, with last update recorded in March 2026.

Geography

State of Pennsylvania, USA, with county-level and legislative district breakdowns.