Child care remains a costly and unevenly distributed resource for families across California’s Inland Valley, even as state investments have expanded subsidized slots and transitional kindergarten (TK), according to a new report from the Public Policy Institute ofCalifornia (PPIC).
The study, California’s Changing Child Care Landscape: Understanding Costs and Supply, published Aug. of this year, highlights disparities between low-income inland regions and coastal areas when it comes to affordability and access.
The PPIC analysis found that child care for infants and toddlers can consume up to 28% of a median household’s income, with preschool costs typically between 6% and 18% statewide.
In Inland Empire cities such as Rialto, Fontana, San Bernardino and Ontario, which fall within the state’s Region 1 and Region 2 cost-of-living zones, affordability is particularly strained.
The report shows that counties with the lowest cost of living, including much of the Inland Valley, have the fewest licensed child care slots per capita, with spaces for only about one-third of children under five.
However, wealthier coastal counties offer licensed spaces for more than two-thirds of that population.
California’s state and federal funding for early care and education has nearly tripled over the past decade, and the state has addednearly 130,000 new subsidized child-care slots toward a goal of over 200,000.
Yet only 19% of eligible children statewide, and even fewer in the Inland Empire, currently receive publicly funded care throughCalWORKs, the Alternative Payment Program or state preschool.
Survey data from “child care navigators,” who connect families to subsidized programs, showed that only 31% said infant care was affordable, while 77% said preschool care had become easier to find, largely due to transitional kindergarten expansion.
According to the report, 54% reported that affordability had improved since 2020, citing fee waivers and expanded eligibility under recent state laws.
Still, Inland Valley navigators and providers said that rising costs for rent, food and utilities often outpace reimbursement rates,forcing some to charge “copayments,” the difference between the state subsidy and the private rate, to stay afloat.
Providers noted that nontraditional-hour care and special needs services remain underfunded, leaving working parents with limited options.
The statewide rollout of universal transitional kindergarten, which will offer free preschool to all four-year-olds by 2026, has had mixed effects across the region.
The PPIC found that while TK enrollment more than doubled between 2021 and 2023, it has also disrupted private and home-based providers that previously served those children.
In San Bernardino County, for example, licensed centers have yet to recover from pandemic closures, losing about 1% of capacitysince 2019, while home-based family child-care providers have grown modestly.
Across the Inland Empire, the overall number of early-education seats is about 6% higher than before the pandemic, but much of that growth stems from TK rather than private child-care expansion.
Providers throughout the Inland Valley told PPIC researchers that current state reimbursement rates don’t reflect the real cost of care,especially as California’s cost-of-living pressures spread inland.
Many Inland Valley facilities, especially small family homes, have faced turnover or temporary closures.
According to PPIC, home-based sites now represent the largest share of subsidized providers, but they serve far fewer children than centers and remain financially fragile.
California’s investments in early education have narrowed some affordability gaps, but Inland Valley families remain at a disadvantage due to limited supply and lower wages.
