The Impact of Covid on Illinois' Licensed Child Care Capacity

Affordable, high-quality child care is often difficult for parents to find. Illinois is no exception. Child Care Aware reports that the average monthly price of full-time child care was $821 per child in child care or 15% of the median household income for a family with children under 6 in 2020. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that access and affordability issues long pre-date COVID and are due to “generations of underinvestment in the care economy.