BELLEVILLE – Leslie Barton and Tony Browning put themselves on a day care waitlist before Barton was three months pregnant. It was more than a year later when they secured care in Edwardsville, and even then it was part time and cost more than their monthly mortgage payment.

Their story is one with which many families in the Metro East area are familiar as the average Illinois family pays $13,762 for center-based care per infant.

The U.S. average for care for children of all ages is $9,200 to $9,600 per year per child, according to Child Care Aware. The nonprofit organization provides a caveat for this number, writing that child care costs vary greatly based on location.

Affordability of child care is affected by a number of factors, including race and ethnicity, family size, whether the child is enrolled in a center or a family program, marital status of parents, birth country of parents and age of the child or children. Child Care Aware provides data sets aiming to estimate the impact of these factors on affordability.

Barton said she could not imagine trying to find options for her child if her family made minimum wage, worked jobs that could not be done remotely or did not have family members to help out.

"I am very lucky to have a mom who’s retired who can help us," Barton said.

The couple does receive a child tax credit of $3,600, which is available to families making less than $150,000 annually. Qualifying families receive $3,000 for each child older than 6 and $3,600 for each child under the age of 6.

The average monthly price of full-time child care per child is $808 in St. Clair County, or 17% of the median income for a family with a child under 6 years old. St. Clair County and Illinois both have higher average child care costs than the U.S. as a whole.

Why are waitlists so long? Why does day care cost so much?

Barton and Browning waited more than a year to get their daughter, Margaux, into a day care facility. They shared her nursery as an office while they waited on five lists.

Licensing regulations, a declining workforce, low wages and COVID-19 regulations have all contributed to the lack of available child care options, especially impacting infant and toddler populations.

Shauna Ejeh, senior vice president of Illinois Action for Children, said one reason infant care is difficult to find is facilities actually lose money on their infant programs, so they don’t offer many spots.

"To provide quality infant care probably costs between $20,000 to $30,000 a year. First of all, parents can’t afford that, right?" Ejeh said.

In Cook County, Ejeh said parents pay college tuition rates for child care, from $16,000 to $20,000 per year, if they can even find an infant slot. But even those high rates would not cover Ejeh’s cost estimation for quality infant care.

Because day care facilities typically lose money on infant programs, Ejeh said there are typically only one or two infant classes (with about eight to 12 children in each) at any given center.

Another issue is staffing. Teaching positions that pay more than infant care are experiencing mass shortages, and day care staffing has also been affected by the Great Resignation.

"We have the challenge where salaries are not on parity with other levels of education, but particularly K through 12," Ejeh said. "We have traditionally underspent on our early care and education system, and so a lot of folks working in classrooms are not earning a living wage."

Janice Moenster, director of early childhood services for the southern region of Children’s Home & Aid, said on average, a child care teacher may earn from $13 to $17 per hour.

"It’s difficult, because they could go to other companies and have a higher wage or a very similar wage and not as many stressors in their life," Moenster said.

Ejeh said the most important thing that can be done for the child care problem in the U.S. is for federal investments to increase. Ejeh said the U.S. currently spends $2 billion per year on early education and child care, and the number should be closer to $14 billion.

How can you find somewhere for your child to go?

Children’s Home & Aid Child Care Resource & Referral is an information service providing families with consumer education and referral options based on their personal needs.

Call 800-467-9200 to speak with a professional about finding a child care facility with openings or waitlists within your price range. The referral system takes into consideration the type of care a parent is interested in, siblings, disabilities the child may have and whether the family is experiencing homelessness.

"The Child Care Resource & Referral was designed to really address quality, accessibility and affordability. Those are the three primary strategies that we employ within our program," Moenster said.

It is the family’s decision whether they decide to pursue any of the referred programs, but the professionals staffing the resource system provide a live search aimed at giving the family options on their first call.

"We do know that (for) infant/toddler care, almost every program has a waitlist," Moenster said. "Infant/toddler slots for children were minimal to begin with, and when COVID happened, programs had to cut back on the number of children in care, for safety reasons."

An alternative parents can consider is family based care. Family programs can still be licensed and may have attachment advantages, Ejeh said.

"Attachment to a primary caregiver, even outside of the home, really aids and supports that child’s development," Ejeh said.

In a child care center, children are sometimes moved from classroom to classroom without having the same teacher, and Ejeh said the stability made possible by home-based providers is a good thing.

One way to find a facility is through ExceleRate Illinois, which provides program rankings.

The Child Care Assistance Program helps families find affordable child care options and assists families in determining applicable relief programs.

Head Start and "Preschool for All" are two other Illinois programs for receiving financial support for day care. The Child Tax Credit is also available.