Press Release: 8/8/2025

In quotes: child care deserts in Massachusetts

 

Alyssa Haywoode

AUGUST 8, 2025

 

“The vast majority of infants and a plurality of toddlers in Massachusetts live in child care deserts, new state data show. Despite the recent increases in early education system capacity, sizeable gaps remain between available seats and the overall number of children, and program capacity falls short for tens of thousands of young children in each early education age group across the state.

“Around 59,000 (70 percent) of infants, around 43,000 (43 percent) of toddlers, and around 10,000 (5 percent) of preschoolers in Massachusetts live in an access desert. The state defines this as areas where for every three children there is only one child care slot, though there are regions particularly in central Massachusetts where the ratio is greater than ten children to one slot.

 

“Enrollment differences between regions, student age groups, and income levels paint a picture of a system struggling to meet potential demand and that is most available to those at the highest income brackets.

“’We know the need is considerable, so we know that growth is good, but it doesn’t tell us whether or not that growth is particularly responsive to where child and family need is perhaps strongest and greatest,’ Tom Weber, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education, said at a recent meeting focused on improving early education data practices. ‘Or is it in fact responsive to other environmental factors, like the rules and policies that we put in place or where we have decided presently to concentrate our public funding?’”

— “70 percent of Mass. infants live in child care deserts, according to state data: New data effort illustrates access gaps across the state,” by Jennifer Smith, CommonWealth Beacon, August 5, 2025