Parent Talk / March 2006
Child Care Cost Higher Than the Roof
The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) has released a nationwide survey of child care prices, Breaking the Piggy Bank: Parents and the High Price of Child Care. The survey found that parents across the country are struggling to meet the high cost of child care. They need to work to support their families but must rely on child care to go to work. But, the high price of child care-a staggering $3,016 to $13,480 a year for one child-strains family budgets and forces parents to make sacrifices in the quality of care their children receive.
“The public hears a lot about rising health care costs. But, families are likely to spend more on child care then they do for health care and food combined,” explained Linda Smith, Executive Director of NACCRRA. “This is the real Parent Trap. With child care costs as high or higher than housing costs in most states, middle income families struggle to afford any child care, much less high quality child care. Parents want their children in safe, nurturing environments that prepare them for kindergarten, but they simply can’t afford it in many cases. They are forced to compromise on quality. Considering that nearly 12 million children under age five are in child care each week, this is a huge problem.”
Child care costs even more for infants than it does for preschool-age children. According to the report, the top ten least affordable states for preschool age care were New York, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington. The top ten least affordable states for infant care were Minnesota (a whopping $11,796 per year), Massachusetts, California, New York, Virginia, Illinois, Rhode Island, Washington, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
Costs in the mid Ohio Valley are substantially lower than in many other areas. The average annual cost of preschool care per child in West Virginia is $3886; annual cost for infants, $4853. Only Alabama and Arkansas had lower costs but Nevada, Mississippi, Montana and Missouri all had annual loss below $4,000 for preschoolers.
According to the report, for working families at all income levels, child care fees consume a large amount of the household budget. In every region of the United States, average annual fees for child care for one child of any age are higher than the amount of money that families pay each year for clothing and health care combined. In the South and West, the average annual price of care for one infant costs more than families spend on food each year. In the Northeast and Midwest, the price of child care for one child of any age is more than families spend on food. In most areas of the US, child care prices come close to or exceed housing costs. In fifteen states, average monthly child care fees for an infant are higher than the median monthly rent.
For working families with more than one child in care, child care costs are even more likely to exceed housing costs. In every state but Nevada, child care fees for two children at any age exceed the median rent cost in the state.
A family in Virginia, who pays average fees for child care for two children, will pay $719 more a month for care than they would for the average monthly rent payment.
Breaking the Piggy Bank calls for increased federal, state, and local investment in quality child care. “Just as we underwrite the cost of our nation’s university system, we must make a broad-based investment to underwrite the cost of child care. There’s simply no way to ensure that every child can enter school ready to succeed unless, as a society, we invest in quality child care,” said Smith.
The primary government program for child care is a federal-to-state grant known as the Child Care and Development Block Grant, largely used to offer vouchers to very low income families to help pay for child care. But, funding for it has been frozen since 2002.
The study recommended increasing to ten per cent the amount of funding states must set-aside to improve the quality of child care, requiring that CCDBG quality funds be used to offset the costs of early childhood development training for child care providers and allowing CCDBG funds to be used to increase staff retention at child care centers. The study also suggested providing resources to help child care providers meet minimum, state-established training requirements and recommended providing additional funding for the construction and renovation of child care facilities.
For more information, visit www.naccrra.org/policy .
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