There are approximately 550,000 children under the age of five in New York City. For proper upbringing, they all need early educational facilities, toys, communication with peers, and what is most important — adults’ care. To accomplish this hard yet noble mission of parenting, some people stay home with their children or turn to relatives or neighbors for child care. In New York there are a few workplaces that provide day care for their employees, but still most New Yorkers turn to private day care centers, although it can be a costly option. The average cost of day care for a four-year-old in New York State is about $9,000 a year, which is actually more than college tuition at a public university. But universities alike, the care and early childhood education provided in the New York day care centers lay the foundation of your child’s skills, knowledge, revealed talents and future successful life, all in all. Whether good day care is worth this money or not — it’s up to the parents to decide, and each case should be taken individually.
The need for affordable child care in New York City is growing, experts say. The number of married working women with kids under age 6 has increased more than 35% since 1980. But child care options haven’t increased with the demand. At the first sight it seems strange that while there’s some kind of a baby boom in New York, day care centers aren’t popping up everywhere. And yet, working parents are still struggling to find care for their kids. “Neighborhoods are being rapidly developed, but the city has no strategy in place for child care,” says Nancy Kolben, whose non-profit organization works on expanding the options of child care in NYC.
New York faces its own challenges that are unique from the rest of the nation. Simply because the cost of living is higher here and so are wages. No surprise that NY is topping the charts for baby and toddler daycare, being the fourth after Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota.
There is also a strong financial aspect that undermines the weak system of public child cares. It lies in the fact that child care teachers, who are required to meet New York State Teachers certification standards, make on average $5,000 to $7,000 less than other school teachers in NYC. Day care workers also argue that they work longer hours and year around. Hence the day care industry often loses its best employees to the school system. Indeed, they aren’t babysitters, but early childhood educators, and deserve to be paid decent salaries for their work. And the city cannot afford raises for public day care workers. The teachers in private day care centers in New York, on the contrary, have higher salaries than their public peers, therefore they work with greater eager and zest, giving them all to the little ones they are in charge of.
As the result of such situation, New York parents have limited options when it comes to childcare: they either have to rely nannies (though many moms and dads balk at this option just because they don’t want their kid hang out with an adult all day), or on family day care (located in a provider’s home), or entrust their child to the hands of professionals in private day care centers, thus being sure that the kid would receive the best care, attention and socialization with peers.
It’s no easy to get your child enrolled in a really good day care, which would also be in your borough or provide transportation, but those who do manage to enroll their children into one of the New York day care centers tend to be happy with the care their children receive.
We hope that you too will be happy for choosing our day care center, and we will be proud to help your children make the first steps in their lives!