That’s the bottom line from CCAoA’s just-published report on Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2017. Our signature annual report is now in its eleventh year and this year, as in previous years, child care represents one of the most significant expenses in parents’ budgets. In all regions of the country, families average child care fees for an infant in a child care center are more than the average amount that families spend on food and transportation combined. And the average annual cost for an infant in center-based care was higher than a year’s tuition and fees at a four-year public college in 28 states and the District of Columbia!
Child Care is Unaffordable Across the Nation
Topics: Policy & Advocacy, Family Stories, News
Continue ReadingReport Shows Child Care Outpaces Nearly All Other Family Expenses Nationwide
WASHINGTON, DC — Child Care Aware® of America today released its annual Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2017 report, which found that child care is unaffordable in all 50 states.
Child Care Aware® of America, the nation’s leading advocate for quality, affordable child care, found that child care fees for two children in 2016 exceeded mortgage payments in 35 states and the District of Columbia; while average annual cost for an infant in center-based care was higher than a year at a four-year public college in 28 states and the District of Columbia.
Topics: Policy & Advocacy, News
Continue ReadingPartnering to Send Care Packages to Puerto Ricans
On November 15, employees from Child Care Aware® of America, Good360, and Charles River Associates worked together to assemble disaster relief kits for Niño’s de Nueva Esperanza child care center in Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico. Volunteers assembled 150 kits that will be sent alongside thousands of other donations garnered by Good360 to families struggling to recover after Hurricane Maria. These kits included goods such as bug spray, coloring books, markers, crayons, socks, and facial wipes that were donated from Nike, Mattel, CVS Pharmacy and others. In addition to assembling kits, volunteers wrote letters to families receiving these kits wishing them a happy holiday season, and reminding them that we are thinking of them during their recovery efforts.
Topics: Systems Building, News
Continue ReadingA Message from Our Executive Director Regarding the Child Care Tax Credit
Child Care Aware® of America supports initiatives by Congress that would strengthen access to affordable child care for all. Unfortunately, the House-passed “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (H.R. 1) fails to address the child care needs of working families by not providing sufficient tax relief and prioritizing expansion of critical tax credits, including the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC).
Topics: Policy & Advocacy, News
Continue ReadingMapping the Child Care Gaps Across the Country
Child Care Aware® of America is excited to announce the expansion of our child care deserts work with the release of the first two in a series of customized state-based interactive story maps, called Mapping the GapTM, that explores the gaps between child care supply and demand. CCAoA coined the term “child care desert” last fall when we released our initial report exploring states and communities exploring issues of child care supply and demand. We refer to areas or communities with limited or no access to quality child care as child care deserts.
Topics: Policy & Advocacy, News
Continue ReadingChild Care Aware® of America’s Story Maps Show States’ Child Care Gaps
WASHINGTON, DC — Child Care Aware® of America today released the first in its series of data-rich story maps of state child care gaps. The first interactive maps showed that one in four children in Alaska’s working families and two in five children in Massachusetts’s working families lack access to licensed child care.
Topics: Policy & Advocacy, News
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