California childcare costs can be range from $10k to $25K a year for one child, study finds
California childcare costs can be range from $10k to $25K a year for one child, study finds
- August 27, 2026
- Nina Bandelj, sociology, shares insight with KNBC
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The study from Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found yearly childcare costs in California account for a quarter of the median income in some counties. UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of sociology and author, Nina Bandelj, says for some families in Orange County, it’s even more: “It’s very expensive and I want to use this word very broadly. It’s expensive financially and also emotionally. … In Orange County, for instance, if they have two children - they have an infant, they have a preschooler - that is nearly $50,000 per year. It’s more than many families spend on their mortgages.”
Watch and listen, courtesy of KNBC.
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