Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 89
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
1
What High-Quality
Center-Based Child Care
Really Costs, and Why No
One is Paying It
Insights from True-Cost Modeling
in Greater Davidson County, TN
DAVIDSON COUNTY CHILD CARE LANDSCAPE STUDY RESULTS | BRIEF 4
Introduction
High-quality child care is an essential resource for families and children. Reliable child care
enables parental workforce participation, simultaneously providing children with a safe,
nurturing, and structured environment that promotes healthy development.1 Quality child care
also strengthens families' economic stability, improving child developmental outcomes and
promoting broader economic growth.2
Despite the essential need for child care, families face challenges accessing and affording it, and
child care program directors face challenges recruiting and retaining educators and maintaining
financially sustainable businesses.3, 4
This brief examines the cost of providing high-quality center-based child care for children
under age 5 in the greater Davidson County, Tennessee region using a cost estimation model
framework. A cost estimation model considers the actual cost of providing high-quality care
with a well-compensated workforce, rather than relying on the prices that parents can afford.
This brief is one part of a five-part series presenting the findings from the Davidson County
Child Care Landscape Study conducted by the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center (Policy
Impact Center) at Vanderbilt University. Below, we detail the true cost of providing centerbased child care, and Brief 5, the next brief, covers home-based child care.
Background
Every day, as families seeking child care across greater Davidson County navigate difficult
trade-offs between affordability and quality, child care programs also work to offer enriching
and safe environments on limited budgets. A strong child care system supports both families
and programs by enabling families to access affordable, high-quality child care and ensuring
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2026
www.pn3policy.org
