Estimated day care costs: How Much Childcare Costs by State in the USA in 2023 | Illumine

Опубликовано: September 15, 2023 в 8:33 pm

Автор: alexxlab

Категории: Miscellaneous

Cost Of Child Care In Iowa: A Breakdown For 2023

By Paulina Richter – Last updated May 05, 2023

Iowa is currently one of the most expensive states in which to raise a child. Although middle income families can balance the rest of their expenses with the costs of Child Care, residents within the low-income bracket struggle to foot the costs of only a single infant because it costs more than rent. Iowa’s problem with Child Care becomes all too clear when you breakdown some of the statewide numbers. Families with 3 to 4 kids end up paying between $27,636 to $38,016 for Child Care every year. For comparison, that’s about the cost of tuition at the University of Iowa. You would think that with parent’s paying so much for their children, that at least those in the Child Care industry would be living comfortably. Unfortunately, Child Care workers are no better off than employees in other sectors. Their salaries may be as low as $22,000 a year, which is insufficient to pay for Child Care let alone live comfortably. Single parent families are also gravely affected by this since they rely on one source of income to pay for Child Care services, and other bills. One thing for sure is: many Iowan families can’t afford their Child Care.

The Types of Child Care Programs

Before we dive further into Iowa’s Child Care problem, let’s first understand the different types of Child Care. Child Care providers are divided into 3 groups:

Family Child Care homes have one or two care givers who cater to the needs of children in small groups. They use their homes to provide Child Care and can offer Child Care services in non-standard work hours.
Child Care centers enroll more children than family Child Care homes and they have more staff too. They put the children in groups based on their ages. Furthermore, they do not care for the children in a residence.
Preschool programs are for children between 3 to 5 years old. Child Care centers, faith based organizations, schools, and non-profit organizations can offer preschool programs.

Iowa Child Care Facts

Now that we have the background, let’s breakdown Child Care by age. Here we’ve given some of the overall cost figures Child Care in Iowa.

The average monthly cost of Child Care in Iowa is $865. That means that the average yearly cost of Child Care for infants in Iowa is $10,380. This figure is over $2000 more than the national average cost of Child Care, which is currently at $8355. If we compare further, the average cost of Child Care is over $1200 more expensive than the average cost of housing in Iowa, at $9,096.
The average cost of Child Care for a 4-year-old child is $719 every month, or $8628 annually. Although this is $1,752 less than the average amount of Child Care for an infant, this is still a considerable portion of income for low-income bracket families.
A family with two 4-year-olds pays an average of $1438 every month, adding up to $17,256 every year. That’s nearly twice the average price of tuition at University of Iowa.
Merely 10.2% of families in Iowa can fully afford Child Care. That’s only 1 in 10 families. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, childcare is not supposed to take up more than 7% of a family’s income. However, Child Care in Iowa costs 15.3% of the total household income.
Low-income families have to go to work effectively for 9 months to afford Child Care for an infant. That will be 18 months if they have 2 infants. This figure is so high that some low income families are reconsidering their decision of using Child Care services. They are then forced into a dilemma: drop Child Care to avoid the cost but have no one to care for your child, or continue with Child Care but watch your financial stability break away.
The average Child Care worker earns only about $22,067 annually. Despite the high cost of Child Care, employees in this sector will have to spend about half of their annual earnings to afford Child Care for their infant. They are more likely to fall within the poverty bracket compared to employees in other sectors. In short, even Child Care workers can’t afford Child Care.

Iowa Cities Child Care Facts

Knowing some of the state averages is important in order to make educated Child Care decisions, but sometimes these state figures may not be accurate for your individual situation. In order to provide more individualized information, we have broken down the cost figures for Child Care for the 10 largest cities in Iowa:

Des Moines Child Care

Child Care on average costs $640 per month in Des Moines.
Monthly Child Care for infants costs between $1200 to $1280.
Monthly care for babies between 1 to 2 years (toddlers) costs $960.
The cost of Child Care for preschoolers who are kids between the ages of 3 to 5 years costs $720 per month.

Cedar Rapids Child Care

Child Care costs families in Cedar Rapids an average of $640 per month.
Monthly Child Care for infants costs between $1200 to $1280.
Monthly care for babies between 1 to 2 years (toddlers) costs $960.
The cost of Child Care for preschoolers who are kids between the ages of 3 to 5 years costs $720 per month.

Davenport Child Care

Kids who are less than 2 years old (infants) day care centers charge between $732 to $928 per month. The average cost of Child Care for infants is $800 per month.
Kids between 2 to 3 years (toddlers) Between $652 to $824. Most charge $175 per week which translates to $700 a month.
3 to 4 year olds range is between $596 to $800 monthly. However, most Child Care centers require families pay $660 per month.
5 year olds the range is between $596 to $760 with an average of $620 per month.

Sioux City Child Care

The average monthly Child Care costs for keeping your child in a licensed center is $648.
Child Care centers in Sioux City charge an average of $661 per month for infants.
The monthly cost of childcare in Sioux is $600 for 4 to 5 year olds.

Iowa City Child Care

Families in Iowa City have to pay an average monthly cost of Child Care of $676.
The average monthly cost of Child Care for toddlers is $671 every month.
The average monthly cost of Child Care for grade-schoolers is $606.

Ankeny Child Care

Ankeny is a city in Polk County, Iowa and the statistics that were accessible were the average of the entire county.

The average amount for Child Care per head in Ankeny is $1143. This surpasses the average amount for Child Care in Iowa City by a solid $146.
Monthly Child Care for infants from 0 to 12 months costs between $578.52 and $983.8
Monthly Child Care for toddlers from 13 to 23 months costs between $578.48 to $982.8
Families with a 2-year-old pay between $566.8 to $893.24 per month for Child Care.
Families with a 3-year-old pay between $556.76 to $837.04 for Child Care monthly.
Child Care for four & five-year-olds costs between $551.04 to $803.6 monthly.

West Des Moines Child Care

Just like Ankeny, the city of West Des Moines is within Polk county and the statistics available were the average of the entire county.

The average monthly cost of Child Care in West Des Moines, Polk county $1143.
Monthly Child Care for infants from 0 to 12 months costs between $578.52 and $983.8
Monthly Child Care for toddlers from 13 to 23 months costs between $578.48 to $982.8
Families with a 2-year-old pay between $566.8 to $893.24 per month for Child Care.
Families with a 3-year-old pay between $556.76 to $837.04 for Child Care monthly.
Child Care for four & five-year-olds costs between $551.04 to $803.6 monthly.

Ames Child Care

The average monthly cost of Child Care in Ames is $676 monthly.
Monthly Child Care for infants 6 weeks to 12 months costs $920.
Monthly care for toddlers between 1 year to 2 years old costs $896.
Child Care for 2 to 3-year olds costs $800 monthly.
The cost of Child Care for children between 3 to 4 years is $760 per month.
Families in Ames with a child between 4 to 5 years pay a monthly sum of $720.

Waterloo Child Care
Waterloo is found in Black Hawk county in Iowa. The available statistics for Child Care in Waterloo is intertwined with that of the whole county.

The average Child Care cost per month in Waterloo is $508 per child.
The average cost of Child Care per month for infants is $610.
The monthly average cost for preschoolers is $589.

Council Bluffs Child Care

People living in Council Bluffs pay about $600 every month for Child Care.
Families with an infant pay monthly Child Care of about $589.
The cost of Child Care for families with one preschooler is on average $559. 5.

The high cost of Child Care in Iowa and low turn up has caused some Child Care centers to shut down due to limited funds. Fewer Child Care centers mean more parents have to find ways to care for their kids despite working full time or even multiple jobs. Furthermore, the Child Care aid that the government provides is insufficient to cover the full cost of paying for Child Care. The light at the end of the tunnel is that individuals and organizations alike – like TOOTRiS! – are effectively working on ways to improve the broken Child Care system in Iowa.

How Iowa Child Care Compares Against the 10 states with the highest Child Care, preschool, infant care, and day care annual costs as of 2023:

Massachusetts ($20,913)
California ($16,945)
Minnesota ($16,087)
Connecticut ($15,591)
New York ($15,394)
Maryland ($15,335)
Colorado ($15,325)
Washington ($14,554)
Virginia ($14,063)
Illinois ($13,802)

FAQs and Stats

What types of Child Care are available in Iowa?

Iowa offers various types of Child Care options, including licensed Child Care centers, registered child development homes, and unregistered home-based providers.

How do I find licensed Child Care providers in Iowa?

To find licensed Child Care providers in Iowa, you can use TOOTRiS, a reliable online platform that connects parents with licensed Child Care providers. TOOTRiS offers a user-friendly interface where you can search for Child Care providers based on your location, preferred schedule, and specific requirements. It provides detailed profiles of licensed providers, including their qualifications, experience, facility information, and parent reviews. TOOTRiS streamlines the process of finding licensed Child Care providers, saving you time and effort in your search. Simply visit the TOOTRiS website or download their mobile app to start exploring licensed childcare options in Iowa.

How can I check if a Child Care provider is licensed in Iowa?

You can verify the licensing status of a Child Care provider in Iowa by using the Iowa Child Care Provider Search website or contacting your local CCR&R agency.

What are the qualifications for Child Care providers in Iowa?

Licensed Child Care providers in Iowa must meet certain qualifications, including completing required training, passing background checks, and maintaining a safe and healthy environment for children.

What are the average costs of Child Care in Iowa?

The average annual cost of infant care in Iowa is $10,378—that’s $865 per month.
Child Care for a 4-year-old costs $8,633, or $719 each month.

Statistics in Iowa:

Infant care for one child would take up 15.3% of a median family’s income in Iowa.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Child Care is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income. By this standard, only 10.2% of Iowa families can afford infant care.
Parents would have more opportunities to enter the labor force. If Child Care were capped at 7% of income, 14,949 more parents would have the option to work.
This reform would expand Iowa’s economy by 0.9%. That’s $1.7 billion of new economic activity.
As of May 2023, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Iowa City, IA is $850. This is a 12% increase compared to the previous year.

Child care costs burden families in Belleville and St. Louis

The average family with a child under 6 years old in St. Clair County pays 17% of their income in child care costs.

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Skyrocketing child care costs in Illinois

The average Illinois family pays more than $13,000 annually to send their infant to a day care center. For many, child care has become hard to find and financially unobtainable.

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Leslie Barton and Tony Browning put themselves on a day care waitlist before Barton was three months pregnant. It was more than a year later when they secured care in Edwardsville, and even then it was part time and cost more than their monthly mortgage payment.

Their story is one with which many families in the metro-east area are familiar as the average Illinois family pays $13,762 for center-based care per infant.

June 9, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the subsidy for child care would be expanded to cover thousands more families, with the state investing $175 million more for child care and early childhood education, Capitol News Illinois reported.

But will families get the relief they need?

The U.S. average for care for children of all ages is $9,200 to $9,600 per year per child, according to Child Care Aware. The nonprofit organization provides a caveat for this number, writing that child care costs vary greatly based on location.

Affordability of child care is affected by a number of factors, including race and ethnicity, family size, whether the child is enrolled in a center or a family program, marital status of parents, birth country of parents and age of the child or children. Child Care Aware provides data sets aiming to estimate the impact of these factors on affordability.

Barton said she could not imagine trying to find options for her child if her family made minimum wage, worked jobs that could not be done remotely or did not have family members to help out.

“I am very lucky to have a mom who’s retired who can help us,” Barton said.

The couple does receive a child tax credit of $3,600, which is available to families making less than $150,000 annually. Qualifying families receive $3,000 for each child older than 6 and $3,600 for each child under the age of 6.

The average monthly price of full-time child care per child is $808 in St. Clair County, or 17% of the median income for a family with a child under 6 years old. St. Clair County and Illinois both have higher average child care costs than the U.S. as a whole.

Leslie Barton and Tony Browning pose with their daughter, Margaux, in this undated photo. Provided

Why are waitlists so long? Why does day care cost so much?

Barton and Browning waited more than a year to get their daughter, Margaux, into a day care facility. They shared her nursery as an office while they waited on five lists.

As schools let out for the summer, many parents of elementary-aged children may be looking for day care options. It could be tough to find spots, although the search is typically easier for those whose children have aged out of the infant and toddler stages.

Licensing regulations, a declining workforce, low wages and COVID-19 regulations have all contributed to the lack of available child care options, especially impacting care for the youngest children.

Shauna Ejeh, senior vice president of Illinois Action for Children, said one reason infant care is difficult to find is facilities actually lose money on their infant programs, so they don’t offer many spots.

“To provide quality infant care probably costs between $20,000 to $30,000 a year. First of all, parents can’t afford that, right?” Ejeh said.

In Cook County, Ejeh said parents pay college tuition rates for child care, from $16,000 to $20,000 per year, if they can even find an infant slot. But even those high rates would not cover Ejeh’s cost estimation for quality infant care.

Because day care facilities typically lose money on infant programs, Ejeh said there are typically only one or two infant classes (with about eight to 12 children in each) at any given center.

Another issue is staffing. Teaching positions that pay more than infant care are experiencing mass shortages, and day care staffing has also been affected by the Great Resignation.

“We have the challenge where salaries are not on parity with other levels of education, but particularly K through 12,” Ejeh said. “We have traditionally underspent on our early care and education system, and so a lot of folks working in classrooms are not earning a living wage.”

Janice Moenster, director of early childhood services for the southern region of Children’s Home & Aid, said on average, a child care teacher may earn from $13 to $17 per hour.

“It’s difficult, because they could go to other companies and have a higher wage or a very similar wage and not as many stressors in their life,” Moenster said.

Ejeh said the most important thing that can be done for the child care problem in the U.S. is for federal investments to increase. Ejeh said the U.S. currently spends $2 billion per year on early education and child care, and the number should be closer to $14 billion.

How can you find somewhere for your child to go?

Children’s Home & Aid Child Care Resource & Referral is an information service providing families with consumer education and referral options based on their personal needs.

Call 800-467-9200 to speak with a professional about finding a child care facility with openings or waitlists within your price range. The referral system takes into consideration the type of care a parent is interested in, siblings, disabilities the child may have and whether the family is experiencing homelessness.

“The Child Care Resource & Referral was designed to really address quality, accessibility and affordability. Those are the three primary strategies that we employ within our program,” Moenster said.

It is the family’s decision whether they decide to pursue any of the referred programs, but the professionals staffing the resource system provide a live search aimed at giving the family options on their first call.

“We do know that (for) infant/toddler care, almost every program has a waitlist,” Moenster said. “Infant/toddler slots for children were minimal to begin with, and when COVID happened, programs had to cut back on the number of children in care, for safety reasons.”

An alternative parents can consider is family based care. Family programs can still be licensed and may have attachment advantages, Ejeh said.

“Attachment to a primary caregiver, even outside of the home, really aids and supports that child’s development,” Ejeh said.

In a child care center, children are sometimes moved from classroom to classroom without having the same teacher, and Ejeh said the stability made possible by home-based providers is a good thing.

One way to find a facility is through ExceleRate Illinois, which provides program rankings.

The Child Care Assistance Program helps families find affordable child care options and assists families in determining applicable relief programs.

Head Start and “Preschool for All” are two other Illinois programs for receiving financial support for day care. The Child Tax Credit is also available.

What are my child care options in Belleville?

Toddle Town, Inc.

Toddle Town, Toddler House and Learning Journey operate as three locations of Toddle Town Inc. According to Kimberly Murphy, director of Learning Journey, the weekly pricing for all three locations is:

6 weeks to 24 months of age: $252
2 year olds: $196
Part-time 2 year olds: $139
Preschool (3, 4 and 5 year olds): $176
Part-time preschool: $132

Registration fees are $45 for one child or $55 for a family with multiple enrolled children. Toddle Town is located at 208 S. Jackson St., Toddler House is at 208 E. Lincoln St. and Learning Journey is at 225 S High St. The company advertises that it offers family discounts and holds a National Early Childhood accreditation.

There are currently waitlists for Toddle Town Inc. facilities. It could take six months to get into the facility for infants, or three to four months for older children, according to Beth Maloney, director of Toddle Town.

St. Henry’s Creative Learning Center

St. Henry’s is a Christian-based child care center located at 5303 W. Main St. According to assistant director Nicole Hettenhausen, its weekly pricing is:

Full-time (7 a.m. to 5 p.m.):

Five days: $170
Four days: $154.50
Three days: $139
Two days: $126

Morning sessions (7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.):

Five days: $120
Four days: $114.50
Three days: $109
Two days: $106

There is an additional weekly fee of $25 for children who are not potty-trained. The center serves children from 15 months to 12 years old.

Tuition discounts are available for full-time families. For one to two children, there is a $15 discount, and for two or more children, there is a $45 discount.

Registration fees are $75 for one child or $100 for a family. Parents or guardians of children who are enrolled full time must purchase naptime equipment for $40 that the family may keep.

Child care in St. Louis

In the city of St. Louis, Child Care Aware reports the average weekly cost of full-time care per child is $270 for infants up to 12 months old, $263 for children 13 to 24 months old, $236 for children 25 to 36 months, $211 for preschoolers (37 months to 5 years old) and $95 for kindergarten and school-age children. Using these numbers, the average price of child care for four weeks is $860 in St. Louis. This number averages the cost of care for all of the above age categories.

Here are some St. Louis-based facilities and their pricing:

Step Ahead Child Care Academy

The facility is located at 4501 Hampton Ave. in St. Louis. Its weekly rates are:

Children 6 weeks to 24 months: $385 (full-time only)
Children 24 to 36 months: $295 for full-time care. Depending on scheduling, part-time options for this age range may be available.
Children 24 to 36 months part time: $270 for four days, $212 for three days and $142 for two days
Children 3 to 6 years old: $260 per week, if potty-trained.
Children 3 to 6 years old part time: $235 for four days, $200 for three days or $130 for two days.

There is a $250 registration fee per family. Step Ahead Child Care Academy is family owned and advertises the family has more than 30 years of care-giving experience.

The Berry Patch Professional Child Care Center

The Berry Patch is located at 670 S. Laclede Station Road in St. Louis and provides care for children up to 5 years old. Here is its pricing:

Under 24 months: Five full days, $372 per week.