Why is it so hard to find affordable child care?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/20/child-care-dc-is-too-expensive-my-experience-shows-why

by bko • 2 months ago

3 2 2 months ago

bko2• 2 months ago

The article goes over the authors attempt to start a childcare center in DC and a lot of costs due to bureaucratic red-tape.

One provider told me it took nearly half a year to get on the fire inspector’s calendar to schedule an inspection. The delay cost that provider $100,000 in rent payments for an empty center. Other experienced providers advised me to plan for 18 to 24 months to open, with up to a year of that spent waiting on city approvals.

Even after that, it costs a lot to operate:

The city’s own cost model shows that it costs centers about $32,000 per infant each year to provide care.

The report it links to doesn't go into costs explicitly. Part of the issue is the requirements for students per teacher, which is about 4/6/10 for infants/toddlers/preschool. But assuming all in comp for teachers is 75k, it comes out to 19/13/8 per kid in the teacher payroll. Doesn't quite get you to 32k but it's a lot.

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/page_c...

Why is it so hard to find affordable child care?

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