Along with the joy of welcoming their new baby, many parents in Hawaii face a stressful question: Where can we find child care that we can trust and afford? Almost two-thirds of young keiki have working parents for whom the quality, cost and availability of care are key issues.

Our new statewide study of child care and early learning programs for children birth through age 5, “Hawai‘i Early Learning Needs Assessment,” identifies bright spots along with concerns. On the bright side, many Hawaii programs offer quality and innovation. But there is simply not enough affordable child care to meet the demand.

The average yearly cost of full-time care is $7,800 in a family child care home and $9,500 in a child care center. Infant care can exceed $13,000. The federal government defines affordable child care as 7 percent of family income for all children, combined. Yet fees for a single child in Hawaii consume 13 percent of the typical family income. Fortunately, the state offers tuition subsidies to many low-income families, but co-payments may be required.

Even if cost is not an obstacle, it can be hard to find an opening. There are enough state-regulated child-care seats to serve about 1 in every 4 children under age 6, and enough infant-toddler center seats for only 1 in every 37 keiki under age 3. Many of our communities are child-care deserts, offering few options for families, who must then turn to relatives, friends or babysitters for care.

We must do more to support our early childhood professionals, many of whom do not earn a living wage or need access to ongoing professional development and a pathway to earning a credential or college degree. Quality programs are expensive to run — providers juggle the need to remain economically viable while attempting to rein in costs to parents.

Positive experiences with caretakers in the early years literally build the architecture of children’s brains, setting the foundation for school readiness and lifelong resilience. The early learning community is doing much to ensure that our young children have this healthy start.

Over 40 percent of Hawaii’s child-care seats are in centers that have a voluntary national accreditation, a mark of program quality. Public prekindergarten is expanding, with quality and access in underserved areas as the foremost concerns. About 12 percent of our child-care capacity is in Head Start and Early Head Start, which are comprehensive programs offered free of charge to low-income families.

Hawaii also has unique options, such as Hawaiian language immersion preschool, programs for homeless children, and family-child interaction programs where parents and children play and learn together. Finally, the local philanthropic community is highly engaged, offering resources for early childhood scholarships and teacher professional development.

Early childhood is a remarkably wise investment. In addition to growing our future citizens, affordable child care allows parents to remain in the workforce, providing stability for employers. In fact, each dollar spent on early childhood yields a return of $3 to $8 in long-term savings to society.

Intended to inform the state’s early childhood strategic plan, our report (see uhfamily.hawaii.edu) ends with policy recommendations to increase the number of child-care seats, decrease out-of-pocket costs to families, support quality in all settings, invest in the early childhood workforce, and develop data systems and readiness assessments.

Barbara DeBaryshe is interim director and Ivette Stern is a junior specialist and project coordinator of Hawaii KIDS COUNT; both are faculty members at the University of Hawaii Center on the Family.