The Challenge
Over 40% of Orange County parents and guardians who completed our survey reported that the price and/or inaccessibility of child care has prevented them from working at some point
Orange County parents and guardians reported that their greatest challenges with finding child care are:
Price/Affordability
Convenience
(both location and hours)
Quality That Meets Expectations
Chart by Visualizer
“When our second entered daycare, it was the most financially stressful time of our lives. Most of my paycheck was going to child care and I was using my credit card for everything from groceries to gas to utilities. But when you have a job and you’re trying to get ahead you just keep going. I was just trying to survive. There wasn’t another option.”
Jeanette
Orange County Parent
The price of child care in Orange County breaks most families’ budgets5
Chart by Visualizer
$90,234
The median income for a family of four is not enough to pay for child care after covering basic needs
$26,150
The average annual cost of full-time care for two young children is more than the average annual CA in-state tuition at a 4-year college6
Subsidized programs provide access to child care for families that couldn’t otherwise afford it, but only a small portion of eligible families are served by these programs7
More than half of OC children age 0-4 are eligible for state or federal subsidies based on income
Orange County is serving approx. 3,500 infants/toddlers (age 0-2) out of 56,000 eligible for state and federally subsidized programs
(based on pre-pandemic data)
Challenges include:
- Not enough funding
- Difficulty navigating the system
- Some may choose not to access it
Many families sit on a waitlist hoping to get a spot
Family Perspective
While some can access subsidies, many families are not eligible yet still struggle to afford child care
“There is a huge gap between making what people would consider decent money and being able to afford full-time child care. Especially when you have three kids close in age. Maybe you could afford that great preschool at first but if you have one or two more kids, suddenly you can’t. And then maybe you downgrade to something less quality with your second. When you fall in a certain [income] bracket there is no more financial help for you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need it.”
Tiffany
Orange County Parent
The struggle is real to find child care that supports working parents' and guardians' work schedules
“Finding someone that can work with your work hours is really challenging. I have to be at work early and hardly anyone will take them that early. Plus I have to be gone more than eight hours and if you go beyond that it’s so much money. Most places only have an eight-hour window so you have to time everything perfectly in order to get everywhere on time. Our daycare opens at 6:30 so I have to be waiting outside the door when they open in order to drop off my kids and get to work on time. But it was the only affordable option that started that early. My available hours have been cut because of child care options. I have to get there late or leave early depending on when daycare is available. If I need to be at work later my mom has to pick them up.”
Adriana
Orange County Parent
Parents describe “trust,” or finding a child care option that they feel comfortable with, as critical
“Besides cost and location, finding someone you trust is the most important thing.”
Roxanne
Orange County Parent
Parents of children with disabilities expressed greater challenges
“It is very hard to find care for someone with special needs. When my son started kindergarten I was crying all the time.”
Tiffany
Orange County Parent
Our Phase I Child Care Landscape Analysis revealed that one of Orange County’s biggest challenges is a huge lack of infant/toddler care8
0
The number of preschool-age children per licensed child care spot
0
The number of infants and toddlers (age 0-2) per licensed child care spot
Note: “Licensed child care spots” refer to the number of spots in licensed child care settings at any one time. Numbers are pre-pandemic.
1 in 0
Even if only ⅓ of infants and toddlers in Orange County required child care, there would still only be enough licensed capacity for 1 in 7 children.9
Parent survey and interviews validated this finding
“Up until kids turn 3, each 6 months that the child gets older, the available child care [goes up] and cost decreases. Looking for 15 month v. 2 year old v. older child is a HUGE difference in terms of what is available.”
Megan
Orange County Parent
In short, finding child care is a monumental challenge
While resources exist, parents often rely on word-of-mouth or trial and error
Children’s Home Society is Orange County’s Resource & Referral Agency for child care
The pandemic made it even more difficult
The result … parents piece together child care solutions, settle for less than ideal situations, and make significant sacrifices to make things work
“It feels like you are breaking yourself into multiple pieces trying to be a parent and employee at the same time, especially with the pandemic. At our current preschool they will take kids as young as 3. It is a great program and our oldest used to go full time but we can only afford to send our youngest 2 days a week because the cost has gone up.”
Jacob
Orange County Parent
What parents say they need
More affordable, quality options or assistance covering the cost of child care
More flexible hours that meet work schedules when factoring in pick-up and drop-off time, and including shift hours and weekends
More options for infant/toddler care
Assistance finding quality child care
Flexibility at work and support from their employers
Employer Perspective
Lack of adequate child care is taking working parents out of the workforce talent pool, and many employers recognize the importance of addressing this challenge
“How do we better help working parents? Make it easier for them to focus on work without worrying how their child is doing throughout the day.”
James Morrison
Human Resources Business Partner, Orange County Employer
“Even before we were significantly impacted by COVID-19, a medical staff survey revealed to us that some clinicians were already having difficulty finding childcare due to their variable shifts.”
Orange County Academic Health System
Employer
Women are disproportionately impacted, especially with the pandemic10
Orange County survey revealed it is most often the mom/female caregiver that sacrifices their career to care for children and other household duties
With the COVID-19 pandemic, women have seen significant job losses
0 times
as many women as men left the workforce in January, 2021
1900
female labor force participation has fallen to its lowest point since the 1980s
Women of color have been hit particularly hard
As of January 2021, 28% of Latina women and 24% of Black women are involuntarily working part-time, compared with 17% of all women
“Lack of adequate affordable child care is taking working parents out of the workforce talent pool. There is a gap with women leaving the workforce. Many working mothers are working to just pay the cost of child care.”
City of Irvine
Orange County Employer
Child care is a “rising issue” in terms of the importance to HR benefits
Common child care related benefits include:
- dependent care flexible spending accounts
- assistance finding child care (e.g. through care.com/careatwork)
- employer contribution to health insurance for family members
Larger employers have more resources to offer these benefits and others
It is more challenging for small-mid sized organizations
Employers that are “ahead of the curve” also offer back-up child care, employer contribution to child care costs, and/or a contract with designated child care provider(s)
These employers shared that investing in these areas (e.g. providing 10 days paid child care at Bright Horizons) translates to less turnover in voluntary separations and much lower absenteeism
What employers say they need
Increased employee access to financial assistance
Incentives and support if they are considering providing child care at or near their work site
- Some employers say they could provide a location for contracted child care
- Employers have liability concerns about providing onsite child care, regardless of whether they provide it themselves or contract out
