High Cost of Child Care

I have been reading the findings from the 2011 Parents and the High Cost of Child Care report published by the National Child Care Resource and Referral Agency and the results are quite sad. Parents throughout the United States are struggling to afford child care and in many instances quality is sacrificed because parents simply can’t afford a quality facility.

In Virginia the average cost of full time center based care for an infant is $8,800 per year. As many of you know care in Charlottesville is much more expensive but using the statistics from the report the average two-parent family 9.7% of their income on infant care, 31.2% of single parent income is spent on child care. Virginia is not the worst by far there are other states where child care is 16% of two parent median income. When parents have more than one child in care it becomes even less affordable. If you’re interested in additional data on Virginia or other states I would be happy to share it with you or you can access the report at http://www.naccrra.org/publications/naccrra-publications/publications/Cost%20Report%202011.pdf

One of the most real numbers parents can relate to is the cost of care compared to public college tuition. Many parents spend years saving for college tuition however in 36 states the annual cost of full time child care in a center is higher that public college tuition. Virginia misses that statistic by $14, the average cost of care being $8,800 and the average tuition and fees and a public college in Virginia is $8,814. The most upsetting part is that public assistance through grants and loans are available if a child chooses to attend college whereas parents to continue working must place their child in some type of care and there is no assistance available. Families don’t have 18 years to save for the cost of infant care. There are some other options for families that cannot afford center based care but other care arrangements are unregulated for health, safety, background checks, and of unknown quality.  

As families of middle incomes struggle the low income families are hit even harder, many families can’t afford to send their child to a high quality center. The result is children that don’t have the social, emotional, and cognitive skills to prepare them for public school. The public ends up paying more to support and assist these children that didn’t have a proper foundation for education.

Hopefully as we share these startling facts we can start to work together to change the system to support young children and their families during this critical developmental period.