• Early Care and Education Facts
• Employer Supported Child Care
• Healthy Families Maine: An Historical Perspective

Start ME Right

Early Care and Education Facts

Availability:

• 65,000 Maine children are cared for out of the home, every day
  
• 33,000 Maine children should have financial support for child care costs
  
• Approximately 7% of businesses throughout Maine provide child care benefits while only 1% provide on-site child care
  
• We are serving only 1/3 of the eligible Head Start Population
  

Affordability:

• 90% of Mainers stated a need for affordable child care
  
  
• Mainers with incomes of about $30,000 were spending about 16% of their income on child care.
  
  
• Maine families with two minimum wage incomes spent over 21% of their income on child care.
  
  
• Mainers with incomes at or below the poverty line were spending about 29% of their income on child care.
  
  
• Yearly costs for Child Care ($4,581) are more than the annual cost for a college education at a public university in Maine ($3,639).
  

Quality:

• Over 20% of low income working parents in Maine say that at some time in the past year they have had to leave their child in an unsafe situation in order to work
  
  
• Quality early education services are critical for children's early brain development
  
  
• Maine requires minimal training for people who take care of your children
  
  
• Only 2% of Maine child care centers were accredited as of 1997
  
  
• Maine child care teachers make less than bus drivers, garbage collectors and bartenders
  

Long-term impact of early care and education:

• For every $1 spent on home visiting, we see $7.50 in savings (1994)
  
  
• For every $1 spent on home visiting, we see $7.16 in savings in reduction of crime alone (1993)
  
  
• Home Visiting has been recommended as the most effective means of developing the well-being of children (NCAN)
  
  
• Government savings from the provision of child care are over 2 times the cost of child care.
  
  
• Reductions in criminal justice cost due to participation in high quality child care will be approximately $10,000. Reductions in necessary educational services will be approximately $6,300.
  

Reference listed below: 

Availability:

• Derived from estimates presented in a 1889 report prepared by the Maine Office of Child Care Coordination
  
  
• Derived from estimates for the Federal Census
  
  
• From the Maine Development Foundation Business Survey conducted by Market Decisions, Inc. in 1998
  
  
• 1997 Community Needs Assessment conducted by ACCESS
  

Affordability:

• From " A Snapshot of Working Poor Parents" commissioned by the Maine Center for Economic Policy in 1997
  
  
• 1998 information for the Resource Development Centers in Maine
  
  
• 1998 information for the Resource Development Centers in Maine
  
  
• 1998 information for the Resource Development Centers in Maine
  
  
• From "Maine: Child Care Challenges" by Gina Adams and Karen Schulman of the Children's Defense Fund, May 1998
  

Quality:

• From " A Snapshot of Working Poor Parents" commissioned by the Maine Center for Economic Policy in 1997
  
  
• Aber, L. National Center for Child Poverty.
  
  
• From "Maine: Child Care Challenges" by Gina Adams and Karen Schulman of the Children's Defense Fund, May 1998
  
  
• From "Maine: Child Care Challenges" by Gina Adams and Karen Schulman of the Children's Defense Fund, May 1998
  
  
• From "Maine: Child Care Challenges" by Gina Adams and Karen Schulman of the Children's Defense Fund, May 1998
  

Impact of early care and education:

• From "Investing in our children: What we know and don't know about the costs and benefits of early childhood interventions" published by RAND in 1998
  
  
• From "Investing in our children: What we know and don't know about the costs and benefits of early childhood interventions" published by RAND in 1998
  
  
• Home Visiting has been recommended as the most effective means of developing the well-being of children (NCAN)
  
  
• From "Investing in our children: What we know and don't know about the costs and benefits of early childhood interventions" published by RAND in 1998
  
  
• From "Investing in our children: What we know and don't know about the costs and benefits of early childhood interventions" published by RAND in 1998
  

Print  |  Email