PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Michael Medwick
Early Futures Partnership, Strategic Communications Advisor
First Five Nebraska
E: mmedwick@firstfivenebraska.org
P: 402-261-9671, Extension 103
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2026
New Child Care Affordability Calculator Brings Real Family Budgets Into Child Care Debate
New Interactive Tool Shows How Child Care Costs are Squeezing Nebraska’s Working Families
LINCOLN, NE – First Five Nebraska (FFN) launched the Nebraska Child Care Affordability Calculator this week, a new interactive tool that helps policymakers, community leaders and employers better understand what licensed child care actually costs working parents with young children.
FFN, a founding initiative of Early Futures Partnership, developed the calculator to answer one of the most common questions the organization receives from public officials and other decision makers: “What’s the average cost of child care in Nebraska?” The short answer: more than most families in our state can afford. The actual answer: it’s complicated.
“Child care costs are not one-size-fits-all for families,” said Katie Bass, Early Futures Partnership’s director of policy research. “We built this calculator to show exactly how licensed child care costs fit—or, more often, do not fit—within the budgets of real Nebraska households.”
Because child care costs and what parents can afford depend on a complex set of unique circumstances for each family, the calculator allows numerous customizations. Among the variables included are where families live, their income, the number and ages of their children and whether they are in center- or home-based care. The calculator accounts for other major household necessities specific to families, including expenses associated with housing, transportation, insurance and food. Users can also input additional expenses like clothing, diapers, savings, loan payments or other common household expenses.
“The Nebraska Child Care Affordability Calculator shows the financial pressures that Nebraska families with young children face every day,” said Early Futures Co-President Jason Prokop. “We hope this new tool will be a catalyst for policy and business discussions and collaboration on practical solutions to keep parents working and kids thriving.”
Prokop said rising child care costs are pushing families to their financial limits, creating significant economic consequences for our entire state.
An economic analysis, “Unlocking Nebraska’s Potential: Child Care as a Key to Nebraska’s Economic Future,” by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Business of Bureau Research and First Five Nebraska found that inadequate access to child care leads to an estimated $1.61 billion in lost labor income and $1.74 billion in lost business output in Nebraska each year.
Try out the new Nebraska Child Care Affordability Calculator on the Early Futures Partnership website.
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About First Five Nebraska and Early Futures Partnership
First Five Nebraska (FFN) focuses on advancing public policies that support the early care, education and healthy development of Nebraska’s youngest children. FFN works in close collaboration with Communities for Kids (C4K) as co-founding initiatives of Early Futures Partnership, a new organization dedicated to aligning public policy with community practice to create a stronger statewide early childhood ecosystem.