Child Care Costs and Sources of Assistance

Parents of sampled children from birth through age 5 and not yet in kindergarten were asked whether they had any out-of-pocket expenses for the child's weekly nonparental child care arrangement. They were also asked if they received assistance for these expenses from relatives, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),³ other social service agencies, an employer, or someone else.

• Considering children whose families paid fees for nonparental care arrangements, the mean hourly out-of-pocket expense for center-based care was lower for Black, non-Hispanic children ($3.00) than for White, non-Hispanic ($4.47), Hispanic ($4.59), Asian or Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic ($4.85), or other race, non-Hispanic children ($4.52) (table 7).
• Children in nonrelative care whose mothers worked 35 or more hours per week had a mean weekly expense of $115.71, compared to $88.24 for children whose mothers worked less than 35 hours per week (table 8).
• Families were more likely to receive assistance with child care expenses when mothers were enrolled in school (32 percent) than when mothers were not enrolled in school (16 percent) (table 9).

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³In 1997, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) replaced the previous welfare programs, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) programs. TANF provides assistance and work opportunities to needy families by granting states the federal funds to develop and implement their own welfare programs.