School-age care, although parttime, is just as expensive as full-time care.
Urban care is more expensive than rural care. Parents in urban areas pay dramatically more for care than parents in rural areas. Comparative data for urban and rural costs were gathered for 31 states in the 2009 survey (Detail Table 7). For infant care in a center, the average cost for urban care is generally $1,600 more than the average costs for rural care. Parents with a 4-year-old in a center will generally pay an average additional cost of $1,100. Virginia reported the widest cost disparity between urban and rural care for both an infant and a 4-yearold child in a center. Indeed, parents in urban areas in Virginia can expect to pay more than double than parents in rural areas; an additional $6,864 for infants (Table 5) and an additional $5,356 for 4-yearolds (Table 6).
Parents of school-age children can pay just as much for child care as parents of infants or 4-year-old children – and school-age children are in care parttime (Detail Table 1). Child care continues to consume a large portion of a two-parent family income (Table 4, below). Hawaii, at $10,720♦ was the least affordable state for school-age care in a child care center, comprising 13.2 percent of a two-parent family income (Detail Table 6 for rankings of all states).
Table 4
Top 10 Least Affordable States for a School-Age Child in a Center* (1 = Highest; 50 = Lowest)
Average Annual Price of Care
Median Income for Two Parents**
Price of Care as a Percentage of Median Two-Parent Family Income
Rank (based on percentage of twoparent family income)
Hawaii
$10,719
$81,505
13.2%
1
Wisconsin
$8,008
$76,869
10.4%
2
Indiana
$6,341
$71,172
8.9%
3
Michigan
$6,656
$76,117
8.7%
4
Ohio
$6,459
$75,352
8.6%
5
Rhode Island
$7,020
$84,949
8.3%
6
Arizona
$5,889
$71,471
8.2%
7
Iowa
$5,663
$72,086
7.9%
8
New Mexico
$4,782
$61,537
7.8%
9
Kentucky
$5,018
$66,410
7.6%
10
State
* Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas did not report cost for school-age care in a center for 2008. ** American Community Survey 2007, U.S. Census Bureau
♦
Rounded to the nearest 5 or 0.
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