NEEDS OF CHILDREN: CHILD CARE

What Was Measured?
Measurements include the total number of children in San Mateo County requiring commercial child care, the total number and unit costs of child care homes, and the total number and unit costs of child care centers.  These figures represent data collected up to mid-year, 1993.

Why Is It Important?
Affordable child care allows for single parent and/or families with dual working caretakers to earn a living while feeling secure that their children are being well cared for.  Sufficient child care is essential in maintaining healthy, safe, and well-adjusted children.

What Was Found?
There was a significantly large number of children in the county requiring child care services (65,423). The total number of allocated spaces is 21,509, based on 5,526 spaces in family child care homes and 15,983 spaces in child care programs. Average costs for full time care varied greatly by age group and type of care. Costs for child care homes were relatively similar for infant and preschool age youths, both averaging slightly over $100 per week. The cost for school-age children, however, was substantially lower at $3.43 per week.

What Is The Trend?

"Our generation is the first one to have seen planet earth from a distance.  And from that perspective it is all too apparent that our species is dependent on a single tiny, fragile globe floating in space, a closed and vulnerable system." Gro Harlem Brundtland  Chairwoman of the World Commission on Environment and Development and Prime Minister of Norway Scientific American, September 1989.

Between 1991 and 1993, the numbers of total available spaces increased from 19,848 to 21,509.  There was a slight decrease of family child care homes from 779 to 747 and an increase in child care programs from 323 to 353.  Increases in costs for full time care rose, depending on the type of care and age of the child, by $5 to $15.

Source: Child Care Coordinating Council of San Mateo, Needs Assessment Report, May 1993

Researcher: Carolina Jané