External Resources, Resources |
October 22, 2018
| Child Care Aware of America
The US and the High Cost of Child Care
More than 11 million children younger than age five are in some form of child care in the United States. US and the High Cost of Child Care: A Review of Prices and Proposed Solutions for a Broken System provides a brief review of child care as a sound return on investment and shares our policy recommendations for supporting families and child care providers.
The report finds that in California, single parents pay 60.4% of their income for infant center care. Married parents of 2 children living at the poverty line pay 112.8% of their household income for center-based child care. The cost of infant care in California is more than the annual cost of college tuition at a four year college.
Also featured are:
- Brief case studies on regional costs in Maryland, California, and Louisiana;
- The importance of Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies and other similar organizations in connecting families to child care, supporting the child care workforce, as well as supporting adequately-funded state systems of support for child care;
- A blog post that provides an introduction to this report and the issue of the unaffordability of child care for all families; and,
- Educational and advocacy tools to help your state or community move the conversation about child care into action.