What is the average for daycare

As shown in Figure 2, in classrooms serving the youngest children, salaries and benefits take up a larger share of expenses due to smaller class sizes and lower adult-child ratios.

However, even this high monthly cost leaves child care centers struggling to cover their costs. In a family child care program, the problem is similar. In small, home-based programs, the entire family child care program can be viewed as one classroom. Looking at the data in this way, it becomes apparent that the system is broken: Parents are stretched thin, teachers are underpaid, and programs are struggling to stay solvent. While the costs above represent a program meeting minimum state licensing standards, many providers offer lower teacher-student ratios or group sizes than required by licensing—especially in states where ratios are particularly high and do not align with developmentally appropriate best practice.

Higher wages are critical to retain experienced and skilled early childhood educators who can foster positive interaction with young children and provide a structured learning environment.

To better understand the cost of a high-quality infant and toddler child care program, the authors created a high-quality child care center and family child care home model in which salaries and benefits are aligned with kindergarten teacher compensation and in which ratios and group sizes are aligned with age-appropriate best practice, as defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Paying higher salaries also increases the cost gap between child care for infants and preschoolers. The increased salaries in the high-quality care model drives the higher cost, with compensation accounting for between 68 and 76 percent of total expenses in this model, as shown in Figure 4. In addition to teacher-student ratios and teacher wages, program size and the ages of children enrolled also affect the finances of a child care program.

Like any business, child care providers benefit from economies of scale. In a larger program, more revenue from tuition covers fixed costs—such as licensing fees, utilities, and program administrators—that do not vary based on the number of children enrolled. However, with almost two-thirds of child care centers serving less than 75 children, many are left struggling to break even. Serving infants and toddlers alongside preschoolers is also key to financial solvency.

To offset the high cost of infant care, providers can use revenues from older children to subsidize the costs associated with infant care. For safety reasons, when infants are enrolled in family child care homes, most states limit the total number of children for which providers can care. For example, a provider may be licensed to serve up to eight children; but if they enroll just one infant, they might only be able to serve five additional children.

As an increasing number of states and cities make needed investments in preschool, 33 they should consider the impact that these initiatives can have on access to infant and toddler child care. If initiatives only support access to preschool in public school programs, community-based child care providers will struggle to stay afloat due to the loss of revenue from preschool enrollment.

Policymakers can mitigate this impact by designing initiatives that include community-based programs. For example, West Virginia requires at least 50 percent of classrooms funded by its universal preschool program to be offered in collaboration with community partners.

Shared services alliances or staffed family child care networks represent an emerging strategy to support small providers and family child care homes. These alliances or networks can support program operations, helping to increase program efficiency and centralize administrative services, such as fee collection and subsidy administration, thus freeing up program directors to focus on pedagogical support.

The network hub is funded either by member fees or by philanthropic or other outside support. As part of an alliance, providers can also increase their purchasing power, buy supplies in bulk, enter into collaborative contracts for support services such as maintenance, and share administrative staff to reduce nonteacher personnel costs.

In this way, shared services alliances can help providers maximize revenue and reduce costs, as well as help teachers and directors focus on their core mission of educating children. Limited public funding forces families to shoulder the majority of the burden of paying for child care. While the U. The true cost of quality infant and toddler child care is unaffordable for most families. Table 5 shows how much parents would need to spend, on average, to cover the true cost of child care that meets state licensing requirements and how much they would have to spend to cover the cost of a higher-quality program.

On average, parents would need to spend 18 percent of their annual income just to purchase infant child care that meets licensing standards. While all states provide higher child care subsidy payments for younger children, in most cases, this higher rate is insufficient to cover the difference between the cost of serving infants and serving older children. However, the infant subsidy rate is, on average, only 27 percent higher than the preschool subsidy rate.

In only eight states does the increase in the subsidy rate match the increased costs. Table A3 in the Appendix provides these data for each state. Figure 5 quantifies the financial gap that providers face when serving infants through the child care subsidy system, ranking all 50 states and Washington, D. In only three states—Indiana, South Dakota, and Hawaii—does the reimbursement rate cover the estimated cost of infant care that meets state licensing standards, but it still falls far short of the cost of a high-quality program.

The recent 80 percent increase in discretionary federal funding for the child care subsidy program is a welcome opportunity for states to increase reimbursement rates in order to start addressing these gaps. The disconnect between the cost of child care and what parents can afford to pay—coupled with the lack of public funding—highlights the central challenge at the heart of the U. While the United States has been slow to invest in early childhood education, compared with many other developed counties, recent polling shows that voters want policymakers to act.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents to a recent national CAP survey supported improving the quality of child care and making it affordable for parents, and nearly 70 percent said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports these policy ideas. The data provided in this report use state and national averages drawn from a variety of sources.

While this helps illustrate the significant gaps between current revenue streams and the true cost of quality, conducting a full cost-of-quality study would allow states and communities to better estimate the specific cost of delivering high-quality child care in their area.

States should use the results of a robust cost-of-quality analysis to set subsidy reimbursement rates that reflect the true cost of quality.

This should include different rates for each age group that are based on the actual difference in the cost of providing each group care. States can also explore ways to use the subsidy system to incentivize providers to serve infants and toddlers, such as contracting for infant and toddler slots. Quality rating and improvement systems QRIS are a way for states to measure and support quality in their early childhood system.

However, state policies must help all providers achieve a minimum level of quality, providing resources to meet state licensing requirements and offering supports to make quality improvements—not just rewarding providers after they have achieved higher quality. More Information on Michigan Child Care The Michigan Department of Education manages child care licensing with strict requirements and provides valuable information and resources for parents and child care providers.

Monthly Child Care Costs in Mississippi Mississippi has some of the lowest child care costs by state. Mississippi does have the lowest housing costs and the fourth-lowest grocery costs in the U. More Information on Mississippi Child Care The Mississippi Department of Human Services provides parents who meet income eligibility requirements help with child care payments.

Visit their website for more information and a link to the application page. More Information on Missouri Child Care The Missouri government supports families with child care subsidies to assist with tuition payments.

Check out their website for eligibility information and how to apply. The department is providing support for child care centers whose businesses were negatively impacted by COVID Monthly Child Care Affordability in Nebraska In Nebraska, child care services cost more than both rent and college tuition.

Child care providers can find information about licensing, child care grants and subsidy programs for Nebraska residents. Parents can visit their website to discover early education guides, child care assistance applications and other resources. More Information on New Jersey Child Care New Jersey is one of the smallest and most densely populated states, with the seventh-highest housing costs in America. Parents can visit the Child Care New Jersey website to learn more about child care subsidies, how to choose a child care center, and how to find child care locally.

New York State has also invested heavily in Early Head Start EHS programs and continues to offer partnership opportunities and award grants to child care providers that agree to meet the EHS performance standards. The median family would have spent around Child care services in North Carolina are difficult to afford for low-wage workers.

More Information on Oklahoma Child Care Parents can visit the Oklahoma Department of Human Services website for information about selecting quality child care and resources to help you discover affordable child care providers in your area. Thousands of Oregon families would benefit from better access to affordable child care. More Information on Oregon Child Care Expensive housing, child care, transportation and groceries make Oregon the state with the fourth-highest cost of living.

Parents can visit Oregon Early Learning for help finding high-quality and affordable child care services. This household would have had to allocate A minimum wage worker in Pennsylvania earns the Federal minimum wage and would have to spend You can visit the Department of Human Services website for application info and additional guidelines.

More Information on Rhode Island Child Care Rhode Island provides subsidized child care for children up to the age of 13, and in some cases, up to the age of Visit the Department of Human Services website for more information on applying for child care assistance.

Monthly Child Care Affordability in South Carolina South Carolina is one of the few states where infant care costs substantially less than either rent or college tuition. Visit SC Child Care for more information and how to apply. This household would have had to spend More Information on South Dakota Child Care The South Dakota Department of Social Services provides plenty of useful resources for parents and child care providers, including child care assistance payments and how to reopen in this new environment.

Monthly Child Care Affordability in Tennessee Tennessee families struggle to find affordable child care. More Information on Tennessee Child Care The high cost of child care in Tennessee means that more parents end up leaving their careers to stay home and raise kids. Affordable child care in the community would allow parents more flexibility to return to the workforce while providing education and social opportunities for kids.

More Information on Texas Child Care Texas Health and Human Services manages child care licensing and helps connect parents with affordable local child care centers. Monthly Child Care Affordability in Utah Utah has one of the lowest poverty rates and highest median household incomes in America, yet affordable child care remains out of reach for many families. More Information on Utah Child Care A minimum wage worker in Utah must work for hours to cover the average cost of infant care for just one month.

More Information on Vermont Child Care Parents can visit the Vermont Official State Website to voice concerns about child care, get help finding child care services, and learn about child tax benefits.

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How much does child care cost? The 10 most expensive states for child care. Three of the most populated states are also the most expensive for child care: New York, California, and Illinois. Except for California and Oregon, child care is most expensive in the East and Midwest. The 10 least expensive states for child care. What do parents think of child care costs in America? Most expensive child care by state in Our survey of parents was conducted via Pollfish on March 16, Written by.

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