Child daycare cost: Understanding the True Cost of Child Care for Infants and Toddlers
“Nobody wins. Everyone suffers”: High cost of child care strains families
CBS Evening News
By Mark Strassmann
/ CBS News
Family budgets strained by soaring child care costs
Family budgets strained by soaring child care costs
02:02
Boston — The soaring cost of child care is one of the most pressing issues facing families nationwide. The annual cost of child care rivals the cost of a college education in many states, according to a recent analysis from the Economic Policy Institute.
Except for Washington, D.C., Massachusetts has the country’s most-expensive child care. For a 4-year-old, that cost averages $15,000 per year. It’s almost $21,000 for an infant. By government standards, only 5% of Massachusetts families can afford infant care.
“It doesn’t work for anybody,” said Lauren Cook, who runs the Ellis Early Learning Center, a Boston institution since 1885. “Nobody wins. Everyone suffers, literally everybody.”
Ellis Early Learning Center, a nationally accredited nonprofit, provides childcare for 270 kids and has a waiting list more than double its enrollment. Tuition is as high as $30,000, but without donations, the center would close.
“We lose money virtually on every child we serve,” Cook told CBS news.
Charging families more for the care, Cook said, “would break families.”
At Ellis, two-thirds of the kids have subsidized tuition based on low family income. Without that subsidy, Aleathia Graham’s child care for her 3-year-old Aryelle would cost more than her rent.
“You’re putting that much money into daycare, then what am I gonna have saved up? How am I gonna afford a house one day,” the social worker told CBS News.
Child care costs Cassandra D’Alesandro, an architect, almost half her after-tax income.
“I felt like I should scream, cry and vomit all at the same time,” she told CBS News. “You have this repetitive question — is it worth it?”
For years, advocates have pleaded for the government to invest in early learning, including free child care for 3 and 4 year olds.
“We don’t look at parents and ask them how they’re going to afford the cost of their education for their 8-year-old,” Lauren Kennedy, co-founder of Neighborhood Villages, told CBS News. “Why should they bear the full responsibility for the cost of their 2-year-old?”
Trending News
- In:
- Child Care
Mark Strassmann
Mark Strassmann has been a CBS News correspondent since January 2001 and is based in the Atlanta bureau.
First published on January 31, 2022 / 7:05 PM
© 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your free account or log in
for more features.
Please enter email address to continue
Please enter valid email address to continue
Weekend Long Reads: The Real Costs of Child Care
Features
Editor
by Kevin Schofield
This weekend’s “long read” comes from investigative journalism organization InvestigateWest, and it dives into why childcare services are so expensive in Washington — and across the nation.
Childcare in our state can be ruinously expensive for families, costing anywhere from $11,000 per year for a 4-year-old in a program designed to meet the state’s minimum standards, to over $30,000 for an infant in a “high quality” childcare center.
But if you think providers are raking in the money, you’d be wrong; most of them are operating on thin margins.
A provider’s largest expense by far is labor, making up 60%–80% of their total costs. Much of that is driven by the teacher-to-student ratios required in order to provide safe and nurturing environments for the children. The required ratios, set by the state, range from 1-to-10 for preschoolers, down to 1-to-4 for infants. And even though most childcare workers earn close to minimum wage, the costs still rack up quickly.
Another big cost is administrative overhead: finances, payroll, regulatory paperwork, signing up customers, hiring and training staff, and everything else that comes with running a business.
Providers also complain about real estate prices: Renting out enough space for all those kids to run around has become prohibitively expensive in Washington cities.
Chart depicting provider costs for childcare centers and family providers with a large percentage of the costs going towards salaries.
Chart by Joy Borkholder.
To deal with all of these expenses, the article discusses the “Iron Triangle” of tactics necessary for childcare providers to stay afloat: full enrollment, full payment collection, and accurate pricing. But all three of these bring their own issues. Some experts contend that a childcare provider needs to offer at least 100 slots, and preferably closer to 300, in order to achieve the economies of scale that make the administrative overhead acceptable. The experts also recommend that providers insist on direct debit from customers’ bank accounts rather than accepting payments in cash or by check to ensure timely and full payment, though that may create equity issues for lower-income families.
A graphic depicting the “iron triangle” of full enrollment, full fee collection, and revenues cover per-child cost. Graphic sourced from InvestigateWest’s “The Real Costs of Child Care in America.”
Accurate pricing is also tricky, and creates its own equitable-access issues for low-income families, because state subsidies only cover about 85% of the true cost to provide childcare services.
The article also covers the discussions happening at the local, state, and national levels to create a better appreciation of the role of childcare in our society, and to rethink the way we fund and provide it to make it more affordable, more accessible, and more sustainable for providers.
The Real Costs of Child Care in America
Kevin Schofield is a freelance writer and publishes Seattle Paper Trail. Previously he worked for Microsoft, published Seattle City Council Insight, co-hosted the “Seattle News, Views and Brews” podcast, and raised two daughters as a single dad. He serves on the Board of Directors of Woodland Park Zoo, where he also volunteers.
📸 Featured image is attributed to Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office (under a Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0 license).
Before you move on to the next story … The South Seattle Emerald is brought to you by Rainmakers.Rainmakers give recurring gifts at any amount. With over 900 Rainmakers, the Emerald is truly community-driven local media. Help us get to 1,100 Rainmakers by the end of the year and keep BIPOC-led media free and accessible. If just half of our readers signed up to give $6 a month, we wouldn't have to fundraise for the rest of the year. Small amounts make a difference. We cannot do this work without you. Become a Rainmaker today!
Rainmakers give recurring gifts at any amount. With over 900 Rainmakers, the Emerald is truly community-driven local media. Help us get to 1,100 Rainmakers by the end of the year and keep BIPOC-led media free and accessible.
If just half of our readers signed up to give $6 a month, we wouldn't have to fundraise for the rest of the year. Small amounts make a difference.
We cannot do this work without you. Become a Rainmaker today!Like this:
Like Loading…
ChildcareChildcare ProvidersFeaturedFeaturesInvestigateWestKevin SchofieldWeekend Long Reads
Cost of a private kindergarten
Flexible pricing policy for children of any age!
Junior age group
(1.5 – 3.5 years)
Kindergarten for an hour
As part of the service, parents can leave their child in kindergarten for one hour. The cost is per hour of attending kindergarten.
350 rubles
Kindergarten for a day
8.
00 – 20.00
The child is taken to kindergarten for one full day with meals. The cost is indicated for the day the child is in the group.
RUB 3,000
First half of the day
8.00 – 13.00
Groups from 1.5 to 3.5 years – the time the child stays in the garden from 8 to 13 hours. The number of places in the group is limited. The payment is per month.
First half + sleep
8.00 – 16.00
Groups from 1.5 to 3.5 years – the child spends time in the garden from 8 to 16 hours. The cost is indicated per month.
Second half of the day
16.00 – 20.00
Groups from 1.5 to 3.5 years old – the group works in the afternoon from 16 to 20 hours. Payment for a month of visiting the garden is 15,000 rubles. The number of places in the group is limited.
Full day
8.00 – 20.00
Groups from 1.5 to 3.5 years – the child is in the kindergarten a full day from 8 to 20 hours.
Senior age group
(3.
5 – 6.5 years)
Kindergarten for a day
8.00 – 20.00
The child is taken to kindergarten for one full day with meals. The cost is indicated for the day the child is in the group.
RUB 3,000
First half of the day
8.00 – 13.00
Groups from 3.5 to 6.5 years old – children attend kindergarten from 8 am to 1 pm. The number of places in the group is limited.
First half + sleep
8.00 – 16.00
Groups from 3.5 to 6.5 years – the time the child is in kindergarten from 8 to 15 hours. The cost of the “adaptation period” is indicated per month.
Full day
8.00 – 20.00
Groups from 3.5 to 6.5 years – the kindergarten’s working hours are from 8 to 20. During this time, the child is in the group.
RUB 35,000
Six age groups
Such a division of children into age groups contributes to a more favorable passage of the adaptation period, during which the child gets used to peers and caregivers.