It's one of the most important decisions a family can make: who will care for your child while you're working? It's also a costly decision.
New numbers from Lending Tree show the average family in Arizona spends $1,200 a month on childcare — that's 20% of the average monthly income.
Ginger Sandweg, Senior Director for Early Learning at First Things First, Arizona's early childhood agency, says the two main problems families come across are finding a childcare provider and being able to pay for it.
"We know that about 48% of the state of Arizona is a childcare desert, meaning there is no childcare available for families to access," she said. "The pandemic really exasperated what the infrastructure of childcare was."
She says many childcare providers have problems finding qualified staff and being able to pay them enough to stay. She says COVID relief funds have helped maintain some of that staffing, but that is set to expire in September of next year.
"How do we, as a state, come together and determine what we can do to keep some of those funds for childcare?" she said.
Resources for parents:
Child Care Resource & Referral
