Childcare Working Group Presents Findings and Action Plan

PORTSMOUTH – The Portsmouth Childcare Working Group presented its report to City Council on July 13. The Council voted to establish the 23-member group to examine childcare access, cost, and supply on the Seacoast. Members included City department heads, school and childcare leaders, employers, and philanthropic partners.

The report finds that market forces alone cannot solve the Seacoast’s childcare challenges. Staff wages account for 65 to 76 percent of a center’s operating costs, while required staff-to-child ratios limit providers’ ability to reduce expenses. Early childhood educators on the Seacoast typically earn $16 to $20 per hour, below New Hampshire’s $25.77 hourly living wage for a single adult. At the same time, 53 percent of surveyed families pay $2,000 or more per month for care, and Seacoast infant care costs more per year than in-state tuition at the University of New Hampshire.

A Citywide FlashVote survey conducted in June found that 68 percent of Portsmouth residents support the City taking a more active role in childcare access and affordability, including many respondents who had no personal childcare need in the past year.

The working group is not recommending a new City budget allocation, City-owned or City-run childcare, or a City-administered fund. A regional childcare solutions initiative is being developed separately by community, employer, and philanthropic partners and is designed to be administered outside City government. The report requests the City keep childcare as a priority and act on the following:

• Direct Inspection and Fire Departments to offer free, advisory pre-inspections to residents interested in opening a licensed in-home family daycare.
• Direct Planning and Sustainability to publish a plain-language guide explaining what type of childcare is permitted and what the approval process involves.
• Direct Planning and Sustainability to review parking and drop-off standards for childcare facilities and recommend requirements suited to childcare settings.
• Direct the City Manager to name childcare explicitly as a community development priority in the FY28 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Annual Action Plan, making childcare projects eligible to compete for existing federal entitlement funds.
• Adopt a resolution welcoming New Hampshire's newly enacted childcare legislation — HB 1195, HB 1433, and SB 614 — and direct staff to align City ordinances and the zoning guide with the new State laws.

"This report gives Council a clear, honest picture of a problem this community did not create and cannot solve alone," said Councilor Annie Hopkins, who presented the findings on behalf of the working group. "Every action we are asking for today costs the City very little and moves us closer to a Seacoast where the people caring for our children can also afford to raise their own."

The full report, including regional models from Iowa, Vermont, Maine, and Gorham, NH, is available at portsnh.co/citycouncil.