Estimate child care costs: The True Cost of High-Quality Child Care Across the United States

“Children’s budget” is the cost of the state for children, their health, education, cultural and physical development, including for children who, for various reasons, were left without parental care, the cost of social support for families during the birth and upbringing of children , support for motherhood and fertility.

In 2020, specialists from the NIFI, the Department of Budget Policy in the Sphere of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Ministry of Finance (Department) and financial authorities worked to form the so-called “Children’s Budget” of the country. If until that time the Department formed the federal “Children’s Budget”, then this year the structure and methodology for collecting the necessary data from the “Children’s Budget” at the regional level was developed. As a result, a full-fledged document was formed, which collected the maximum possible data on the expenditures of regions and municipalities on state support for families and children.

This work is not the first attempt to create such a document. In the mid-2000s, the experiment was conducted in Moscow, and today – in a number of regions (St. Petersburg, the Republic of Karelia, Volgograd, Moscow, Smolensk, Ivanovo and Chelyabinsk regions), the laws on regional budgets already contain an analytical section, which presents data on budget expenditures for childhood.
The regions have different approaches to the formation of the children’s budget.

Ivanovo region presents expenditures broken down by government programs, subprograms, regional projects and major events. At the same time, both regional and federal funds are indicated.
The Volgograd region generates expenses for childhood in 10 tables by areas: in the field of transport services; in the field of providing citizens with affordable and comfortable housing; in the field of construction; in the field of employment of the population; in the health sector; in the field of culture; in the field of mass media; in the field of physical culture and sports; in the field of social support of the population; in education and youth policy. Inside, for each area, directions for spending budget funds (specific measures) and the category of recipients of these funds (individuals, subordinate institutions, organizations implementing these measures) are indicated.

The Moscow region uses a departmental classification of budget expenditures by sections, subsections and target items (state programs, subprograms and main events).
The Republic of Karelia presents data broken down by state programs, subprograms, main activities and activities (types of expenditure). The Smolensk region presents the same data within the framework of the functional classification. And the Chelyabinsk region – in the context of state programs, subprograms, events, but indicating only targeted articles.

The federal “Children’s budget” is formed in the program and non-program part of the costs. The program part reflects the costs of the state program and specific activities. The non-programme part of the expenditures is presented in the context of the expenditures of state bodies on ensuring the activities (rendering of services) of state institutions (for example, general education) and social support for their employees.

All approaches have a right to exist, but they (except the federal one) are absolutely understandable only to those who form and approve the budget (since they are formed in terms and rules of the budget, this is very convenient), but in most cases they are completely incomprehensible to other citizens.
The format, which was developed by the Ministry of Finance of Russia and NIFI, was maximally (as far as possible) adapted to the presentation of the “Children’s Budget” to the general public.

Information on the amount of budgetary appropriations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation directed to state support for families and children is presented in the form of four tables.

Table No. 1 ( 2019 ., 2020 ) “Information on the volume of budgetary appropriations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation allocated to state support for families and children” is a summary table that presents data in general for the entire “Children’s Budget” The remaining tables reflect the same expenses in different sections (important for deputies).
Table No. 2 ( 2019 ., 2020 ) “Report on the participation of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation in the implementation of national projects and on plans for participation in the implementation of national projects in the current and subsequent periods in terms of the implementation of activities aimed at supporting children and families with children (consolidated budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation).
Table No. 3 ( 2019 , 2020 ) “Report on the expenditures of the consolidated budget of the subject of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Action Plan for the implementation of the Decade of Childhood (Approved by the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 6, 2018 No. 1375-r) (in terms of activities, the number of responsible executors of which includes the subjects of the Russian Federation)”.
Table No. 4 ( 2019 ., 2020 ) “Information on the volume of budgetary appropriations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation allocated for payments and benefits provided to certain categories of recipients.”

The tables include information on the expenditures of the subject of the Russian Federation and the budgets of municipalities allocated for state support of families and children. Thus, almost all state expenses are subject to accounting, since the federal and even more so regional budgets are not formed in the context of individual services and activities. It is practically impossible to isolate the expenses that go specifically to the family and children, for example, in a city clinic, hospital, library, sports complex or theater, unless these are specialized children’s institutions. In this regard, of course, a certain amount of conventionality in the generated data will be present. In order to solve this problem, it will be necessary to make significant changes to the budget classification.
Education measures included expenses for pre-school, general, vocational and additional education, as well as expenses for social support measures administered by educational authorities – school meals (hot meals) and reimbursement of parental fees for childcare and care.

In terms of health care measures, only those expenses incurred by the consolidated budget of the region for the maintenance and development of state and municipal medical organizations (institutions) providing services to families with children and children were taken into account, that is, without taking into account compulsory medical insurance funds. It also presents the costs of social support measures that are administered by the health authorities – drug provision of children, vaccination of children, provision of special and dairy products for children under 3 years of age, pregnant women and nursing mothers, provision of families with newborn children with gift sets of children’s accessories.

To assess the costs of social support for children and families with children, a list of social support measures was used, which is the same for all regions. Costs for measures that are specific to the region were included in the general line. In addition, the costs of maintaining and developing social service institutions and organizations that provide certain services to children and families with children were subject to assessment.

Expenses for orphans and children left without parental care, in particular, the volume of financial support for educational organizations for orphans, medical organizations for orphans and organizations providing social services for orphans, are subject to a separate assessment. In addition, data was collected on key areas of social support:

a) payments (allowances, compensations, scholarships, etc.) and in-kind assistance to orphans and children left without parental care;
b) payments (allowances, compensations, etc.) and assistance in kind to guardians, trustees, foster parents, adoptive parents;
c) providing housing for orphans and persons from among orphans and children left without parental care.

Also, special attention was paid to the costs of the implementation of activities, payments and benefits provided to specific categories of recipients, such as: large families, young families, disabled children and families with children with disabilities or children with disabilities, students and student families , low-income families, families with children who do not have preferential status, which reflects approaches to the amount of funding for certain areas of state policy (Table 4 of the “Children’s Budget”).

Comparative analysis of data on the “children’s budget” among the regions in 2020

for state support for families and children.
Figure 1 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020

Figure 2 – Examples of the structure of expenditures of constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020

Source: Calculated by the authors based on the data provided by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Finance of Russia as part of the “Information on the volume of budget allocations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation allocated to state support for families and children.”
Figure 3 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: education

Source: Calculated by the authors based on the data provided by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Finance of Russia as part of the “Information on the volume of budget allocations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation directed to state support for families and children. ”
Figure 4 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: health care

Source: Calculated by the authors based on the data submitted by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Finance of Russia as part of the “Information on the volume of budget allocations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation directed to state support for families and children.”
Figure 5 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: social support for the population

appropriations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation allocated for state support of families and children.
Figure 6 – the expenses of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for state support for families and children in 2020: Active employment policy

Source: calculated by the authors according to the subjects of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Finance of Russia as part of “Information on the volumes of budgetary assistance of consolidated the budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation allocated for state support of families and children.
Figure 7 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: culture

the budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation allocated for state support of families and children.
Figure 8 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: physical culture and sports

Figure 9 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: youth policy

Source: Calculated by the authors based on the data provided by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Finance of Russia as part of the “Information on the volume of budgetary appropriations of the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation directed to state support for families and children. ”
Figure 10 – Spending by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on state support for families and children in 2020: support for orphans

Is it possible to include the cost of utility bills in the parental fee for supervision and care in a municipal preschool educational institution? Are utilities included in the concept of “maintenance of buildings”?