Organizational Form, Parental Involvement, and Quality of Care in Child Day Care Centers

This research compares cooperative child day care centers to for-profit and independent nonprofit centers in terms of parental involvement in operations (such as fundraising and classroom participation), parental involvement in governance (specifically, serving on the board and attending the annual meeting), and quality of care. It also tests whether parent control of the board is associated with quality. Findings show that cooperative centers feature greater parental involvement in operational aspects, including fundraising and care of the center or grounds compared to for-profits and independent nonprofits. Cooperatives are also more likely to have parents on their boards and feature boards with parent majorities compared to independent nonprofits, although more than half of these nonprofit centers also have parent-controlled boards. Results also show that while the cooperative form, tested as a distinct organizational type, is not a predictor of quality, parent control of the board is a positive predictor of this outcome.