Tuition & Cost of Care
DDC charges a monthly tuition that is based how many days (2-5 days/week) a child is enrolled and the daily schedule (morning-only, “school day”, or full day). We do not provide drop-in services. For our current rates (2025-2026), please click here. We DO accept the Best Beginnings scholarship, as well as Child Care Aware scholarships for military and DOD families.
“Why is childcare so expensive?”
Great question. Our educators deserve livable wages, which are adjusted yearly based on the cost of living in this area. In addition, we have building maintenance costs and utilities, to keep us healthy and safe and warm. We pay for curriculum materials, educational materials, technology subscriptions for communicating with our families, local milk that is delivered right to our door, nutritious food, field trips, and membership fees for local/state/federal early childhood organizations. When we add up the total costs per month and divide by the number of children we serve, the cost of care totals $1200-1500 per child, per month (this is a range of averages from the past few years). For more information, or to get involved in local advocacy efforts to support the early childhood workforce, please check out these resources and articles:
- National Conference of State Legislatures (2021): “The Early Care & Education Workforce“
- Zero to Three article (2024): “Why is child care so expensive?”
- NPR news story (2021): “Why America’s child care costs keep soaring”
- The Week article (2023): “Why is American child care so expensive?”
- US Dept. of Labor report on childcare prices around the country (published Jan. 2023).