Did You Know…
- Approximately 90 percent of brain development occurs during the first five years of a child’s life.
- Children in high-quality child care have been shown to develop better social, math, and language skills, as well as fewer behavior problems.
- More than one fourth of Fortune magazine’s 2009 “100 Best Companies to Work For” have on-site child care facilities.
- Ninety-seven percent of parents would pay as much as $10 more per week for better child care.
- Eighty-nine percent of children in the U.S. under the age of five with employed mothers were in a regular child care arrangement, compared with just 63 percent of grade school-aged children.
- Six percent of children ages 5 to 11 in the U.S. care for themselves while their parents are at work, while 33 percent of children ages 12 to 14 do as well.
- The annual fees to care for an infant at a full-time U.S. child care center range from $4,560 to $15,895; for a four-year-old, $4,056 to $11,678; and for a school-aged child, $2,160 to $10,719.
- By contrast, the average tuition and fees paid by a student attending a typical four-year state college in the U.S. is $6,585.
- The median annual family income of U.S. married couples with children under 18 is $76,393.
- Full-time infant care in a child care center is 7% to 16% of this total income.
All statistics cited by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies or Fox News.com.
- Full-time infant care in a child care center is 7% to 16% of this total income.
