Maine has some of the most restrictive child-care regulations in the nation, according to a new study from West Virginia University, making childcare businesses more difficult and expensive to operate and increasing costs for parents.
“Though well-intended, the regulatory framework cripples progress toward affordability, availability, flexibility, and quality for American families seeking childcare solutions,” said the study. “Many popular childcare regulations are more effective at increasing the cost of care than the quality of care.”
Maine ranked 41st, with some of the most restrictive regulations in the nation.
[RELATED: Maine Has Fourth Highest Percentage of Maltreated Children Nationwide: WalletHub Report…]
West Virginia University considered various common regulatory factors, such as requirements on the staff-to-child ratio, the amount of training and education required for employees, or playground size, among various other factors.
These factors often increase operational costs for childcare businesses, requiring them to spend more on facilities, employees, and training.
Researchers then averaged those factors to give each state a score on a ten-point scale, with higher scores representing more childcare freedom.
Maine received a measly 2.59 points.
Louisiana came out on top with the least heavily regulated child care system and a score of 9.08, while Massachusetts was at the bottom with 1.73 points.
New Hampshire and Delaware were the only New England states not to rank in the bottom ten.
The study also found a slight inverse relationship between childcare regulations and fertility gaps, the gap between the number of children desired and the number of children a woman actually has.
Researchers found that an increase of one point on their childcare regulation index corresponded to an average reduction in the fertility gap by 0.025 to 0.029 children.
As Maine ranks among the states with the most heavily regulated child care, its child care costs are also among the highest in the nation.
As of 2023, Maine had the 13th highest average childcare costs, with an average annual cost of $20,513 per child.
When considering the average childcare cost compared with the median income, Maine is the third worst, with childcare costing 34.48 percent of the state’s $59,489 median household income.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="32025 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=32025">7 Comments
From The first day till graduation from grad school school graduation Maine have the best the Democratic leadership available to our kids-not
DHHS still can’t handle it even with this type of oversight
Maine has systematically driven home based childcare providers out of business because of ridiculousover regulation. It might be interesting to investigate religious discrimination as well.
Did you mean to reference Delaware as New England state?
And all the while Janet and Sheena can brag about their cutesy new flag and rave that Maine has the best lobster rolls .
What a bunch of losers we have running this state .
Please take Maine back and vote as many democrats out of office as possible
It’s the ONLY way we will save our state .
Re – Electing Chelley – Shelly – Shelley – Chellie ( whatever ) sure as hell won’t help ! .
Delaware is not a New England state…
This is rich. Given that our ‘child friendly’ state has legalized late term abortion (infanticide), and passed LD 227 which allows minor, and incapacitated minor children, to make permanent life altering decisions that will leave them mutilated, barren, and with a higher incidence of suicide when compared to children whose parents choose mental health treatment for their gender dysphoric children. Given that back drop, it is not surprising that the geniuses in Augusta have succeeded in making day care untenable for Maine’s working class families. Let’s show them our gratitude at the ballot box on Nov. 5th.