Monthly costs of childcare once your kid is in school?

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

My husband and I are weighing some life decisions (staying in DC vs moving, specifically) and we've got two in daycare right now. Starting next year our oldest will start in Prek3 (we are at an EA school so it's guaranteed). I'm trying to wrap my head around the cost of paying for private preschool elsewhere vs. using DCPS.

I was wondering if anyone had an estimate of how much they spent on childcare for their preschoolers, assuming you needed fulltime care? My back of the envelope math is:

- Aftercare = $320/month for 9 months ($2880)
- Summer camps = $1000/month for 2 months ($2000)
- Misc (weeks off, holidays, etc) = ~250/week for 2 weeks ($500)

And I assume we'll have about two weeks/year of no costs due to vacations/holidays.

That's a total of $5380, or about $450 per month total.

Private preschool in the area we're looking at is about $1300 a month, so the move would "cost us" $850 per month for the preschool years.

Is that about right? Am I thinking about it right? Any unexpected costs I'm not thinking about?

Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Ah shoot I'm sorry. I meant to post this in DC public school forum. Mods can you delete? Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah shoot I'm sorry. I meant to post this in DC public school forum. Mods can you delete? Thank you!

Oh wait, I guess this did get moved.

[Anonymous]

Your summer estimate is low.

For summer, I need beforecare and aftercare for camps. I have done the cheap DC Parks and Rec and Y camps - it is not worth the savings.

Budget $500 a week per kid. You will find something cheaper - but this is a good starting estimate. This summer there are 10 weeks of summer vacation -so $5000