ALBANY - According to a report released by Child Care Aware® of America, a private organization, the cost of child care continues to increase while families struggle to afford quality care. Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012 Report provides results from a survey of Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) State Networks and local agencies, which asked for the average fees charged by child care programs in 2011.

The report provides the average cost of child care in 2011 for infants, 4-year-olds, and school-age children in centers and family child care homes nationwide. It shows that in 36 states (including the District of Columbia), the average annual cost for center-based care for an infant was higher than a year’s in-state tuition and related fees at a four-year public college. In New York the average annual cost for center-based care for an infant is $14,009; the average tuition and fees for SUNY schools for one year is $6,213, a 125% difference. In every state and the District of Columbia, center-based child care costs for two children (an infant and a 4-year-old) exceeded annual average rent payments. In New York, the average cost of center-based child care for two children (an infant and a 4-year-old) is $25,594; average rent for one year in New York State is $11,952, a 114.1% difference. 

“Families need child care in order to work,” said Marsha Basloe, Executive Director of the Early Care & Learning Council “But, we are facing a crisis.  As child care costs continue to rise, parents are faced with difficult decisions. Do I pay my rent, buy groceries or pay for child care? Parents are often forced to take their children out of regulated care and place them in unlicensed care where the quality is unknown. While parents may not always be able to afford to place their children in quality child care, we as a state can’t afford not to.”

According to the report, in 2011, the average annual cost of full-time child care for an infant in a center ranged from about $4,600 in Mississippi to nearly $15,000 in Massachusetts. The average annual cost of full-time care for a 4-year-old child in a center ranged from about $3,900 in Mississippi to nearly $11,700 in Massachusetts. In New York, parents of school-age children paid nearly $11,000 a year for part-time care in a center.

The report ranks the 10 least-affordable states for center care based on the cost of child care as a percentage of state median income for a two-parent family. The 10 least affordable states (in ranked order) for full-time center-based infant care in 2011 were: New York, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The least-affordable states (in ranked order) for full-time care for a 4-year-old in a center in 2011 were: New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Vermont, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Maine and Rhode Island.