Assessing unintended administrative burdens of technology: the case of swipe card attendance for child care subsidies

Public child care subsidies are designed to reduce the financial cost of child care for low-income households so that parents can work and/or pursue educational and training opportunities. As is the case with other public services and benefits, families who received child care subsidies may experience administrative burdens or costs when accessing and utilizing them. Moreover, child care providers, as third-party service providers, may also experience challenges in interacting with the state and complying with program rules. While present in many areas, administrative burdens tend to be more relevant in programs serving low-income families, as the eligibility criteria and participation procedures are complex. Technology is often seen as a solution to address complexity and minimize burdens, but just as with other interventions, its success is not guaranteed. This paper focuses on one particular technological mechanism: the use of swipe cards to record attendance for child care subsidies, and uses New Jersey as a case study. Our research question asks: How does using swipe cards alleviate or exacerbate administrative burdens in the child care subsidy system? Our inquiry goes beyond understanding the experience of the parents, or program beneficiaries, to also investigate the experiences of the providers, or third-party service providers, gathering insights and perspectives from various stakeholders. Based on in-depth focus groups and interviews with child care providers, parents and guardians, public agency staff, and advocates from select New Jersey nonprofit groups (n=90), we find that although implemented to ease compliance costs, the implementation and use of swipe cards failed to reduce them and introduced psychological costs.