Child Care in America: 2012 Fact Sheets

Child Care Aware^® of America recently released its annual state-by state report on key child care data.  Child Care in America 2012 Fact Sheets provide information and statistics on working families, child care supply and demand, costs and other relevant child care data.

Some interesting facts for Missouri:

• Out of 678,384 total families with children, 124,899 families live in poverty.
• Average annual fees for full time infant care in a child care center in Missouri are $8,580. 
• This amounts to 39% of the median family income for single working mothers. 
• As a comparison, average annual cost for tuition and fees at a public in-state four-year college is $7,668. 

View or print the full 2012 Fact Sheet for Missouri here.

View or print the Fact Sheets for any other state or the District of Columbia here. 

New Crib Standards for Child Care

We've gotten a lot of questions from child care providers about the new crib standards.  A few facts:

• The new standards go info effect for child care providers December 28, 2012.
• They went into effect for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors June 28, 2011.
• Immobilizing the drop side on older cribs does NOT make them compliant.
• You should not purchased used cribs for use in child care, especially ones that were manufactured before June 2011.
• You should dispose of non compliant cribs in a manner which prevents them from being used.  This means you should NOT sell them or donate them.
• You cannot tell if a crib is compliant by looking at it.  If you purchased cribs prior to June 2011 and you want to verify whether they meet the new standards, you can contact the manufacturer or retailer and ask for written proof, a Certificate of Compliance.

See more information on crib standards from the Consumer Products Safety Commission here.