In New Hampshire, finding child care isn’t just hard, it’s near impossible in some towns. Centers are full. Staff are burnt out or gone. Parents are stuck choosing between paying more than they can afford or quitting their jobs to stay home. The state’s new roadmap says it wants to change that. But the way it’s going about it has some folks scratching their heads.
The Department of Health and Human Services rolled out a plan this fall. It’s called Roadmap 2025–2027. One of its goals is to boost child care access by enrolling 10 percent more kids from high-need areas by September 2026. Sounds good on paper. But there’s a catch. You can’t enroll more kids if you don’t have enough workers. And right now, that’s the biggest problem.
Child care centers have to follow strict rules about how many kids each provider can watch. That’s for safety and quality. But when you don’t have enough staff, you can’t take in more kids. It’s not just a hiring issue. It’s a pay issue. Most early child care workers in New Hampshire make about $15.62 an hour. That’s nearly $9 less than the average worker in the state. And that’s before you factor in the training and certifications they need. It’s no wonder folks are leaving for better-paying jobs in schools or other fields.
Shannon Tremblay, who heads up the state’s Child Care Advisory Council, put it plain. She said the state’s plan is “putting the cart before the horse.” You can’t grow capacity without fixing the workforce first. That means better pay. That means more support. That means treating child care like the essential service it is.
The state’s second goal is about money. DHHS wants to work with others to figure out where the funding stands and how to make it better. Right now, child care is expensive. The federal government says families shouldn’t spend more than 7 percent of their income on it. In New Hampshire, married couples spend about 12 percent. Single parents spend over 37 percent. That’s not sustainable.
Because of those costs, a lot of parents are dropping out of the workforce. Last year, more than 17,000 Granite Staters weren’t working because they had a kid at home who wasn’t in school or care. That’s not just a personal loss. It’s a hit to the state’s economy. The Fiscal Policy Institute says New Hampshire lost between $9 million and $14.1 million in tax revenue in 2023 because of child care shortages.
There are programs to help, like the Child Care Scholarship. But even if you qualify, there might not be a spot for your kid. Tremblay said it’s like the chicken and the egg. You need funding to make care affordable. You need workers to make care available. And you need both at the same time.
To figure out the funding piece, the state’s teaming up with the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative. They’re doing a fiscal analysis. That means looking at where the money comes from, where it goes, and what’s missing. They’re also doing something called “visioning.” That’s a fancy word for getting folks together to talk about long-term solutions. Julie Asher, who leads the Collaborative, said they’ll need to get creative. The state doesn’t have deep pockets. So they’ll have to find new ways to build a system that’s fair, stable, and high-quality.
The roadmap also talks about other things, like improving Medicaid and behavioral health programs. But child care is the piece that hits home for a lot of working families. It’s not just about kids. It’s about jobs. It’s about keeping the lights on. It’s about making sure parents don’t have to choose between a paycheck and their child’s safety.
In rural towns, the problem’s even worse. There might be one center in a 30-mile radius. If it’s full, you’re out of luck. If it closes, you’re stuck. That’s not just inconvenient. That’s life-altering. For families living paycheck to paycheck, child care isn’t optional. It’s the thing that lets them work, pay bills, and keep food on the table.
The state’s plan has good intentions. But intentions don’t fill classrooms. They don’t pay providers. They don’t fix the system. What’s needed is action. Real investment. Real wages. Real support. Until then, the crisis will keep going. And families will keep feeling the squeeze.
Child care isn’t just a policy issue. It’s a people issue. And right now, the people who need it most are being left behind.
