Child Care

Child care policy addresses the availability, affordability, and quality of care for children from birth through school age — including infant and toddler care, preschool and pre-kindergarten, and before- and after-school programs. Child care in the United States is prohibitively expensive: the average annual cost of infant care exceeds $15,000 in most states, and more than $20,000 in high-cost areas, making it the largest single household expense for many families with young children — more than housing, food, or healthcare. Yet child care workers are among the lowest-paid workers in the economy, earning a median wage of around $13 per hour, contributing to high turnover and quality challenges. Unlike most peer nations, the U.S. has no universal pre-kindergarten or subsidized child care system. The Child Care and Development Block Grant provides federal subsidies to help low-income families afford care, but waitlists are long and funding covers only a fraction of eligible families. The Build Back Better legislation passed by the House in 2021 would have invested $400 billion in universal pre-K and child care subsidies — but was stripped from the final version that became law. Decades of research confirm that high-quality early childhood education produces substantial long-term benefits in school readiness, educational attainment, and lifetime earnings, with the highest returns from programs targeting disadvantaged children. Countries like France, Germany, and Sweden offer heavily subsidized or free universal childcare as a standard social provision.