Affordable Berkeley daycare for a 9 month old
Can anybody recommend a good, AFFORDABLE daycare located in Berkeley? It’s for a 9 month old. The daycares all seem to be for 2+ Year olds. Many are around $1,300 per month, when we can really only afford 1/2 that. We are looking for larger group settings and possibly foreign language immersion.
Jul 6, 2018
Parent Replies
Try Little Stars on Stuart Street in Berkeley. Manar is great, and I think she will have space in August/October.
Not to be an unhelpful poster, but $1,300 for full-time care is already a very good rate. Most full-time day care in the Bay area is around $1,600-2K, and that's for mixed ages and group setting outside the house. For lower cost you might look for in-home day care, have you checked-out https://bananasbunch.org/? They are a company that does child care referral.
In Berkeley I think you would be hard pressed to find full time care for an infant for less than $900 a month. You would be able to find something cheaper if you are willing to look in Richmond or El Cerrito. Have you worked with Bananas or looked at the home day care lists on Berkeley Parents Network?
Infant care (24 months and under) is very expensive. I think it's very unlikely you will find full-time care for less than $1,000/month in the Bay Area. We were paying about $1,400/month 3-4 years ago and felt that was one of best rates around.
I wish I could help, but I just wanted to say that I believe what you are experiencing is typical. I don’t think you will have luck finding infant daycare at half that price... My son’s daycare at that age (nearby) was $1,200 per month, and that was one of the least expensive I could find.
For full-time daycare? $650/month is $162/week is $4/hour at 40 hours/ week.
Even with the legal limit of 1:3 adult to infant ratio, that's only $12/ hour... Which is less than the legal minimum wage of $13.25/hour in Berkeley.
You may find someone willing to work for $4/hour, but that provider will not be an official daycare, licensed or legal.