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That really stinks. We will be paying for after school care but it's about half what we are paying for full time preschool/daycare.

That's crazy! Before and after care through our town will cost roughly $600/month which blew me away. I mean, it's about half the cost of FT preschool but for as much as people talk about finally being free of daycare payments....well, it doesn't feel very "freeing" to me!! But paying more? Yikes!

@Corduroy: Wow, that's a bummer. I'm sorry. I wonder what other families do, if everyone just doesn't the after care program and sucks it up. That just seems like a high rate for the number of kids that would potentially participate.

@Corduroy: yeah, it sucks. Before and after care (which makes a 7:30-5:30 day) in our town is about $800/month plus you pay extra for school breaks to have "wrap care". Like Spring break is an additional $500 or something. And even though you pay, they have a lot of closed days or early dismissal days. Not great for working parents.

But it's still way cheaper than full time daycare in our town.

Yea we aren't out of the child care payments yet either. Even though it's full day K that's only 8-3. So she does after care which is about $175 per month. Not terrible. It does cover early release days which is nice but no other breaks.

@Corduroy: omg!!! That is outrageous!! I would probably see if another mom would be willing to watch my daughter for way less!

Ours is full day K and after care is 300 a month. I live in a high COL area

@Anagram: I feel like we live in the same town. It's $$$$$. I'm amazed. It makes it incredibly difficult to have two working parents (who also have commutes).

@Littlebit7: I think we do live in the same town! But the good news is that there are several outside daycares/preschools that offer after school care/summer break/school break care and it's more reasonable than full time daycare. So you do get some child care relief.

And (knock on wood) as long as our town has the free Pre-K 3 and Pre-k 4 programs, then it's still kind of a deal. And we've been really, really pleased with Pre-k 3 this year. It's a great program and we are so lucky in our town to have it.

@Corduroy: Doing the math on that makes me envious of your regular daycare fees. I pay $305/wk at a "cheap" daycare. Weekly costs up to $470 are not unusual. It always amazes me how much this stuff varies by region...and how much my region is always on the ouch end of the variation!