2009 Child Care Affordability
76% of families on Long Island pay more than 10% of their household income for licensed child care programs.
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Why is this important?
The affordability of child care will affect a family’s ability to work outside the home and help to determine whether their children are in healthy, high quality environments while parents work. With increasing emphasis on the importance of the early years particularly in relationship to brain development, and the potential impact on a child’s later success in school and life, ensuring high quality child care has become increasingly more important.
How are we doing?
The affordability of child care depends on several factors including: the number and age of the children requiring care, the hours and type of care used, the fees charged, family income, geographic location and whether the family is eligible for any government subsidies. Given the gaps in available programs, many parents piece together several programs to meet all of their needs.
An analysis of actual child care rates on Long Island for full-year, full-time care using data from licensed child care programs indicates that the average cost is $13,629 – more for younger children, less for older ones.
For most Long Island families with young children, these costs exceed economist’s recommendation to spend no more than 10% of household income on child care. For a family needing to provide care for two children under school age, the costs could be as high as $27, 282 ($14,282 for a baby plus $13,000 for an older child). In fact a review of census data reveals that 76% of Long Island families choosing licensed child care programs are paying more than 10% of their household income on child care.
Given the high cost of licensed programs, personal preference or convenience, many parents choose to use family, friends, or neighbors to care for their children, all of whom are not licensed, but some are registered so they can receive subsidies for the children in their care. On Long Island the average cost for these “legally exempt providers” is $8,476 for full-year, full-time care (data for non-registered programs is not available). Given these rates, 52% of Long Island families choosing “legally exempt providers” are paying more than 10% of their household income on childcare.