Survey Reveals Louisiana Parents Face Childcare Crisis

Starting a young family is already a financially intimidating undertaking, but for those living in Louisiana, it can appear totally out of grasp.

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Those young parents are staring into the abyss of rising healthcare costs, housing costs (especially with interest rates higher than they've been in years), the increased cost of groceries, utilities, and with a little one on the way, there's the horror of finding a trustworthy, stable, yet affordable, daycare. For some young couples, that almost appears as fantasy.

If the price of childcare is within their range, the facility is already at capacity or appears somewhat shady. And those places with availability are totally out of their budget.

This leaves a number of young Louisiana couples with some hard decisions. Maybe one parent will be forced to quit work to care for the child or they abandon the idea of having children altogether.

If that's where you have found yourself, you're not alone. The results of the 2024 Louisiana Child Care Parent Poll, which was conducted by the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children (LPIC), shows parents all over the state are struggling with cost and availability to child care.

In a story from the Louisiana Radio Network, Director of Policy and Research, Mattilyn Batson, says the struggle young Louisiana parents battle for affordable childcare access to accommodate a busy work schedule is common

Batson says, “Childcare is super expensive. So they are caught in the middle between knowing whether or not to send their children to childcare and to be in a high-quality environment where they are learning or to not work at all.”

The survey found that over half of parents worry about affording childcare, with costs averaging $633 per month per child. Batson says for those without subsidies, expenses rise to nearly 12-hundred-dollars monthly.  “And so for a family having two kids under five and they have to foot the entire bill for childcare that $28,000 a year.”

Batson also discussed the fact that childcare caused considerable disruptions in the workforce with 70% of parents missing work in the past three months to handle parental responsibilities.

Additionally, Batson hit on the harsh reality of the need for investment, warning that without action, families will face financial strain, and Louisiana’s workforce will suffer from lost economic potential.