Listed here are the most current reports available. Please call (253) 383-1735 to obtain copies of reports from past years.

About Network Data

With about 175,000 children in licensed care with an estimated 35,000 or more caregivers in Washington State on any given day, child care is a key component of the state’s economic and social picture. Parents and policymakers alike have a stake in ensuring that care is affordable, accessible and high quality. In terms of affordability parents still stretch to meet a cost of care that can amount to a quarter or a third of their income. Cost impacts providers as well, who must operate on the thinnest of margins in order for parents to afford their fees. 

What is the Care Zone? This is a definition unique to our network  that is derived from the source (method specified below) and is defined as the number of children 12 and under who:

1. live in a single-parent home where the parent is working
2. live in a two-parent home where both parents are working

The source classifies children in single-parent and two-parent working households into two age groups, 0-5 and 6-17.  The number of care zone children between 6-12 was calculated by identifying the percentage of children between 13 and 17 (through various other sources) and subtracting that percentage from the number of 6-17.  Therefore it is an estimate.

Since the source of this data is only updated in the national census, this is the percent of care zone children found in the 2000 Census applied to the 2003  population of children under 13. 

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