In WA and beyond, a child care crisis is holding parents back
“In 2022, more than 1 in 10 young children had a parent who had to quit, turn down or drastically change a job in the previous year because of child care problems. And that burden falls most on mothers, who shoulder more child-rearing responsibilities and are far more likely to leave a job to care for kids.”
According to the Seattle Times’ Daniel Beekman, Moriah Balingit and Sharon Lurye in their piece In WA and beyond, a child care crisis is holding parents back:
“The dilemma is common throughout Washington and the U.S., where high-quality child care programs can be prohibitively expensive, government assistance is limited and day care openings are sometimes hard to find at all.”
The Seattle Times shares the experience of Auburn’s Nicole Slemp, who found that even the most inexpensive childcare would have cost most of her salary.
“Before she had her son, William, Slemp was hopeful her dual-income household could absorb the extra cost of child care. She was eyeing a center up the street from her home that’s part of a national chain. As it turned out, that center had a 10-month waitlist and charged about $2,000 a month, Slemp said — more than the rent on her two-bedroom duplex and approximately the median rate for an infant at a child care center in King County, according to Child Care Aware of Washington.”