While child care was found to be overpriced throughout the entire country, exceeding 27% of median income for single parent families in each state, in California an especially high percentage of these households’ incomes, 56.3%, goes towards daycare for young children, according to a recent study, The US and The High Price of Child Care: An Examination of a Broken System by the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.
Affordable child care is critical to single- as well as two-parent households, because it allows parents to leave the home in order to work and provide for the family, rather than having to stay at home to look after children themselves.
The results of the yearly study showed that California was the sixth most expensive state to care for a 4-year old, and 20th most expensive for the care of toddlers.
Child Care Aware of America’s study also found that the average annual cost of daycare for infants in California is $16,452, which is 17.6% of the median $93,850 yearly income for two parent households, and an overwhelming 56.3% of single parent households’ annual $29,198. This is in line with information found in the City of Long Beach’s California Early Childhood Education Strategic Plan for 2018 to 2023, published last year, which states that the annual cost of daycare for children in Long Beach is over $13,000.
The City’s strategic plan also points out significant economic disparity between the different neighborhoods of Long Beach and the children who live in them. While in the neighborhoods of zip code 90808, containing Skylinks Golf Course and parts of El Dorado Park, only 3.6% of children live in poverty, in zip code 90813, containing Cambodia Town and the neighborhood of Washington, that number reaches 46.1%.
“As a City, it is critical that we support our youngest residents and their families in order to make a meaningful and transformative impact on children and our entire community,” Mayor Robert Garcia stated in a letter at the beginning of the City’s early education plan.
According to the City’s California Early Childhood Education Strategic Plan, 23% of Long Beach’s children qualify for some sort of subsidized child care. However, the families of 16,164 of those eligible children are not making use of the available public funds.
One local organization helping underserved families access affordable child care is Long Beach’s Community Improvement League (CIL), which works in Long Beach, Signal Hill and Los Angeles. CIL provides publicly subsidized child development programs for children ages 2 through 5, and before/after school programs for children 6 through 13 years old, through a sliding payment scale based on families’ incomes. CIL’s Child Care Food program also provides free meals to children enrolled in its child care programs through funds provided by the Department of Education.
“CIL has recognized this critical need,” CIL’s website states, “and has responded with high quality affordable early childhood development services. For some of these families, this high quality, safe and affordable child development program can mean the difference between working and being unemployed.”
For more information about CIL’s subsidized child care programs visit its website.
