High Child Care Costs Strain NH Family Budgets

In the fourth primer of the Granite Guide to Early Childhood series, authors Tyrus Parker and Jess Carson report that, in 2023, the average price of full-time, center-based care for an infant and a four-year-old in New Hampshire was nearly $32,000 a year. Equivalent to 28 percent of median family income for New Hampshire households with children under 5, this is four times the 7 percent threshold that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has deemed affordable.\nHigh costs can push care out of reach for the lowest-income families, perpetuating inequity. Perhaps the most important relief from high early care and education costs is the New Hampshire Child Care Scholarship Program (NH CCSP), available to families with incomes below 85 percent of the state median. Yet prices are often unaffordable for families who are ineligible for the CCSP, particularly those just out of range of eligibility, part of a persistent national pattern too