Child care providers fuel economic growth , but it is frequently at the expense of their own economic security . Providers rank in the third percentile of occupational wages . 2 The poverty rate for child care providers in Washington is 17.7 %, much higher than for Washington workers in general ( 8.2 %) and 7.9 times as high as for K-8 teachers ( 2.3 %). In fact , 39 % of Washington ’ s child care providers rely on one or more sources of public assistance to make ends meet . 3
The child care market is broken and it is children and parents who suffer most as a result . Even before the pandemic , 63 % of children from birth through age five in Washington lived in areas with an inadequate supply of child care . 4 For families that can access child care , costs are exorbitant : The cost of full-time child care for an infant and a child in preschool can equal up to 35 % of a two-parent family ’ s income and up to 150 % of a single-parent ’ s income – well beyond the federal standard for affordability of 7 % of income . 5 The broken child care market harms businesses too . Pre-pandemic , employee turnover
A future with more closures , growing child care deserts , and fewer options for families means greater economic costs for communities everywhere . Learn more about the economic realities of child care from the
Center for American Progress in this video .
and missed work due to child care access issues cost Washington employers an estimated $ 2.08 billion annually . 6
The child care crisis in Washington has intensified since the COVID-19 pandemic , with many licensed child care programs either permanently closed or struggling to stay open , and relief funding is coming to an end . Since 2020 , DCYF has distributed $ 400 million in emergency stabilization grants for licensed child care programs , funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act ( ARPA ). In Washington , 62,370 child care slots were maintained through ARPA funds .
7 Unfortunately , the federal
Inflation Reduction Act did not include provisions for additional child care funding , even though the House-passed version of the bill allocated nearly $ 400 billion for child care and preschool funding .
8 Many licensed child care programs are experiencing a funding cliff .
In 2019 9 and again in 2021 , 10 the Legislature directed the task force to report on the true cost of quality care based on a federally approved cost of quality care study and cost estimation model . A cost estimation model is an Excel-based tool that estimates the per-child costs of operating a child care program . The Legislature also directed the Department of Children , Youth , and Families ( DCYF ) to draw from the cost estimation model to develop a rate setting model for reimbursement rates for the Working Connections Child Care ( WCCC ) subsidy program .
series of state-by-state reports produced by the Economic Policy Institute and University of California Berkeley ’ s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment .
4
Child Care Collaborative Task Force Washington Industry Assessment Report , August 2020 .
5 Ibid .
6 Washington State Department of Commerce , The Mounting Costs of Child Care . 2019 .
Foundation , March 9 , 2022 .
2022 COST OF QUALITY CHILD CARE LEGISLATIVE REPORT 7