WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — New data released Wednesday from the National Institute of Children's Health shows that the child care crisis across the country is affecting parents' jobs stability.
Specifically here in South Carolina, 15% of young children belong to families in which someone quit, changed or refused a job because of not having child care.
Local parents tell News 19 it's hard to find child care, and even harder to afford.
This data is coming from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual Kids Count Data Book.
In it, it explains that in our state, more than half of working parents reported being late to work or having to leave early due to a lack of child care, and almost a quarter of South Carolina parents have been fired due to lack of child care.
Sarah Knox is the senior director of policy and advocacy at Children's Trust of South Carolina.
She explains the childcare crisis in the state is multi-layered.
"In South Carolina, child care workers, on average, are paid less than $11 an hour. On average, that rate is $10.94. That's the fourth worst in the nation. We rank 46th in terms of that pay. When we compare ourselves to our neighboring states of North Carolina and Georgia, North Carolina's average is higher at $12.87 and Georgia's is slightly higher at $11.71," Knox said.
Local moms News 19 spoke with explain that the price is only rising for child care, citing the cost ranges from $150-$220 a week in the Midlands.
"So, it starts off more expensive in the infant room, which when we started, he was $190 as an infant and it's supposed to progressively get cheaper, but we're paying what we were paying when he was an infant now as a four, almost five-year-old," West Columbia mom Amy Gard said.
In fact, according to the Children's Trust of South Carolina, this fall, parents could see costs rise even more if Congress doesn't act. Emergency pandemic funds that have helped 220,000 child care providers stay afloat will run out on September 30, 2023.
To make matters worse, "A lot of the work from home from COVID are now having to go back into the office, so I think that's also putting a demand on the system," Irmo mom Kimberly Friedrichs said.
All this to say, the government agency, Children's Trust of South Carolina, tells News 19 their policy committee is currently working on solutions and will ramp up these efforts to propose ideas to the state legislature sometime this fall or winter.
One mother tells News 19 in order for her to afford daycare currently, she was able to find a daycare scholarship through the State's Department of Social Services.