As part of her work, KSHB 41 News I-Team reporter/anchor Sarah Plake dives deeper into stories making headlines, such as this story about the cost of child care. Send your story idea to Sarah.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers child care "affordable" if it doesn't cost more than seven percent of a family's income.
That's a far cry from what parents are dealing with in most states, including Missouri and Kansas.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, this is what child care costs on average for one infant:
MO - $13,173 a year, or just over $1,000 a month
KS - $9,105 a year, or $759 a month
Parents all over the metro are probably thinking, "I wish."
In reality, people I've talked to and in online parent forums say they're paying more than $400 a week for child care. That comes out to at least $1,700 a month or $20,000 a year.
Again, that's just for one infant.
Costs go down once babies grow into toddlers and preschoolers.
In many cases, daycare costs more than going to college.
Here's what one year of in-state undergraduate tuition (plus mandatory fees) costs at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and the University of Missouri:
KU - $12,370
K-State - $12,694
MU - $15,548
Families are paying thousands of dollars on top of a daycare shortage in our area that's persisted for years.
KSHB 41 has done several stories just this year.
"For every child care opening in Linn County, there's 40 kids in the county that need that spot," Chris Johnson, the superintendent of the Prairie View School District, told KSHB 41 in January.
In February, a new daycare provider in De Soto was preparing for an influx when the Panasonic plant opened. The need for child care was already high after a different daycare closed in the area.
"I know we're probably going to have to double our capacity intake or availability in six months," Christina Rose, the program director for Happy Campers, said.
A February point-in-time survey from the state of Kansas found that the availability meets only 55% of potential child care demand in Johnson County.
In July, Kids Win Missouri had hoped to receive $5 million for a new child care program for families in need. The program only received $2.5 million.
"We had so many wait lists," Jessica Tran with the Kids Win Missouri outreach team said. "We had them broken down by age groups and siblings. We had people calling every single day."
Some school districts, such as Independence and Harrisonville, implemented their own child care programs for their employees.
"I'm spending this much on diapers this month and this much is going to utilities, whatever," Megan Dillard, an employee with the Independence school district, told KSHB 41 News in September. "Everybody is in that boat."
Recently, the state of Missouri set aside $2.5 million for a program called Missouri Child Care Works, in which parents will share child care costs with the state and their job. Under that program, some parents could save 75% on child care costs.
"This takes the burden of paying for child care off the family alone and it becomes a shared community cost," Toni Sturdivant, the director of the Mid-America Regional Council's Early Learning department, said.
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