How much does daycare cost in Alabama?

The figures differ because they come from different sources. The 2022 price is the U.S. Department of Labor's figure for the middle Alabama county, based on state surveys, and each of the 67 counties counts the same. The 2026 price is the middle rate among Alabama daycares that publish rates online, and every one of the 58 that post a rate is a center.

Four years of rising prices also separate them. Posted infant rates run about $87 a week above the 2022 county price, and posted preschool rates about $50 a week above it.

School-age care is the exception: the posted rate ($85 a week) is below the 2022 figure ($113). Ask whether a school-age rate covers full days in summer or only before and after school.

Prices stay within a narrow band across Alabama. In 2022, center infant care ran from $114 a week in Clay County to $147 a week in Shelby County.

Home daycares cost about the same as centers in Alabama. The middle county charged $129 a week for infant care in a home daycare, against $135 at a center.

The Alabama Department of Human Resources runs a child care subsidy program that helps families with low and moderate incomes pay for care while they work or go to school. On DaycarePal, 37 Alabama daycares are listed as accepting child care assistance: see which ones.

Head Start and Early Head Start are free for families who qualify, mostly by income, and serve children from birth to age 5. For 4-year-olds, Alabama's First Class Pre-K, run by the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, has classrooms in schools, centers and Head Start programs across the state.

Part-time schedules and home daycares can also help. Ask each daycare about registration fees, sibling discounts and charges for holidays or vacation weeks.