Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 94
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
6
The High Cost of Infant Care Leads Programs to Offer Fewer Infant Classes in
Favor of Preschool Classes
Because of the smaller class sizes and lower educator-to-child ratios, infant care is the most
difficult age of care for child care programs to offer in a financially sustainable way.13,14 In
greater Davidson County, only an estimated 10 percent of available child care slots are
offered to infants. The region can provide infant care to only approximately 1 in 5 infants
born in greater Davidson County in 2024.d
Figure 2 illustrates how differences in class-size limits and educator-to-child ratios across
age groups affect the finances of a typical child care center. The figure compares the
monthly revenue and expenses associated with classrooms serving infants, toddlers, and
preschoolers. Because fixed costs are distributed evenly across all classrooms and
children in a program, whether a classroom generates a shortfall or surplus largely
reflects the number of children it can serve (and the tuition revenue it can generate)
relative to staffing requirements of that classroom based on the age it serves.
Examining classroom-level revenue and expenses in Figure 2 reveals that infant and toddler
classrooms operate at a financial loss. Tuition revenue does not fully cover the cost of
staffing and operating infant classrooms. In contrast, preschool classrooms generate excess
revenue after covering their own costs, helping offset the financial losses associated with
serving the youngest children.
In practice, these cost dynamics lead programs to operate more preschool classrooms than
infant classrooms. Expanding preschool capacity improves financial stability, whereas
adding an infant classroom may actually make a program worse off financially. As a result,
many programs limit the number of infant classrooms they offer or choose not to serve
infants at all, contributing to the limited availability of infant care for families across greater
Davidson County.
d See Brief 1 for more information about today’s local child care supply.
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2026
www.pn3policy.org
