Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

The annual report on the cost of child care is out, and once again Massachusetts has the highest average annual costs in the nation for both 4-year-olds and infants in full-time, center-based care. The commonwealth is also among the most expensive states for family child care, ranking fourth most expensive for infants behind New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island and second behind New York for 4-year-olds.

Fees in 2011 for a 4-year-old in Massachusetts average $11,669 a year in a center-based program and $9,496 with a family child care provider, according to “Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012 Report” – by Child Care Aware of America (formerly NACCRRA, the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies). Fees for a Bay State infant average $14,980 in a center and $9,346 in family child care.

Although costs are down slightly from 2010, when center-based care averaged $16,500 for an infant and $12,200 for a 4-year-old, the report still counts Massachusetts among the 10 least affordable states for center-based care. The report calculates affordability by analyzing the cost of child care as a percentage of each state’s median income for two-parent families.

The relatively high cost of living and relatively high licensing standards in Massachusetts combine to make child care here particularly expensive. In Massachusetts and across the country, much of the cost of early education and care is borne by high fees for parents and low wages for early educators.

The annual cost for center-based child care exceeds a year’s in-state tuition and fees at a four-year public college in 35 states and the District of Columbia, (more…)

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Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Changes in child care policies and reduced funding negatively affected families in 37 states, according to a recent report from the National Women’s Law Center. The NWLC report helped inform a recent New York Times story – “Aid for Child Care Drops When It Is Needed Most.”

“With states under pressure to cut their budgets and federal stimulus money gone, low-income working parents are facing a paradox. Just when they have to work longer hours to make ends meet, they are losing access to the thing they need most to stay on the job: a government subsidy that helps pay for child care,” the Times reports. “The subsidy, a mix of federal and state funds that reimburses child care providers on behalf of families, is critical to the lives of poor women. But it has been eaten away over the years by inflation and growing need and recently by state budget cuts, leaving parents struggling to find other arrangements to stay employed.”

NWLC summarizes its findings: (more…)

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Photo: Kate Samp for Strategies for Children

Once again, Massachusetts is among the states with the nation’s least affordable child care according to “Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2011 Update,” from the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. NACCRRA measures affordability by comparing cost with the state’s median income. In addition, in straight dollar terms, full-time child care in Massachusetts is the most expensive of the 50 states.

More than 11 million children in the U.S. are in some form of early education and care each week, NACCRRA notes. “In 36 states, the average annual cost for center-based care for an infant was higher than a year’s tuition and related fees at a four-year public college “In every state, center-based child care costs for two children (an infant and a 4-year-old) exceeded annual average rent payments,” NACCRRA finds, according to its news release. Nationally, overall costs increased 1.9% in centers and 1.8% in family child care homes between 2009 and 2010, but in Massachusetts costs decreased slightly. NACCRRA cautions that some states with relatively more affordable care also have less stringent regulations for quality.

Here are some highlights of NACCRRA’s findings for Massachusetts: (more…)

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