Gift of a Lifetime: Quality Child Care

As we bring 2024 to a close this holiday season, Quality Care for Children is imagining what the future holds for Georgia's children: What will their early years look like? Have we prepared them for a vibrant life full of opportunity? Could we be doing more to empower their future? 

Our children deserve the world; that's why we're inviting you to join us and give our children the gift of a lifetime: access to high-quality early care and learning. 

Challenges At Home, Right Here in Georgia 

The child care sector faces significant challenges and shifts: ever thin profit margins, a shortage of qualified providers, and increased demand for affordable, high-quality child care, including options that meet the needs of working families such as evening and weekend care. 

One of the most pressing national trends is the growing gap between child care demand and supply, with many areas facing “child care deserts.” In Georgia, this is compounded by the rising cost of child care, which continues to outpace inflation and puts strain on working families. The average yearly infant tuition exceeds in-state tuition at a four-year public college, and child care expenses represent more than one third of the earnings of a family with low income. 

In response to these national and state trends, Quality Care for Children’s efforts are helping to close the gap in child care access. We are committed to nurturing Georgia’s young minds. Our work is rooted in the belief that every child deserves quality, language-rich early childhood experiences. We aim to help eliminate any economic, social, or health-related barriers standing in their way.

Our work at Quality Care for Children is critical to families throughout Georgia: 

1. Early Brain Development – 90% of a child’s brain is “hardwired” before the age of 5, setting the groundwork for future learning. 
2. Early Literacy Gap – Vocabulary development during the preschool years is related to later reading skills and school success. By age 3, there is a 30-million-word gap between children from wealthy and poor families. 
3. Increasing Cost of Child Care – 40% of a low-income family’s budget can easily be spent on child care. The average cost for center-based care for an infant in Georgia is $11,066. 
4. Childhood Hunger and Poverty – 18.4% of children in Georgia live in food insecure homes, and more than 17% live below the poverty level. 

Securing the future of our nation – our children – is a tremendous undertaking, and each of us plays a vital role in this mission. We depend on dedicated supporters like you who understand the profound and lasting benefits of early education to raise awareness and help us unlock the gift of a lifetime. 

Your support makes a difference and enables us to ensure that our youngest children have access to nurturing, high-quality early learning opportunities.  Thank you for joining us.