Prince George's County Council Reviews Roadmap to Universal Child Care Package

Child care costs in Prince George's County have climbed more than 20% since 2017, and availability has shrunk 5% since 2022. Monday, the County Council's Committee of the Whole reviewed a six-part legislative package that Council Chair Krystal Oriadha says is the county's most ambitious attempt yet to reverse both trends.

"For too many families, child care has become both unaffordable and inaccessible," Oriadha said. "Parents are being forced to make impossible choices, and our county cannot thrive when working families are stretched this thin."

The package, called the "Roadmap to Universal Child Care," is designed to confront affordability, expand access and strengthen the quality of care. Oriadha introduced the five bills and one resolution at a press conference on March 10 at the Wayne K. Curry Administration Building in Largo, before presenting the legislation at the afternoon Council meeting the same day. The Committee of the Whole took up the package on March 24.

The scale of the problem is reflected in numbers that Oriadha has made central to her pitch. Child Care Aware of America data cited in coverage of the package shows it costs between $15,000 and $22,000 a year for toddler care in Maryland as of 2024, and that's for a single child. Oriadha put the local weight of those figures plainly: "We're talking about $1,600 per child, and so a family of three — that becomes astronomical."

Alexis Perry, a mother and teacher, says child care costs are so expensive she had to step away from her career to care for her children, especially her 9-month-old daughter. "As a working mom, it is extremely difficult to find quality care. Minimum around the time a child's care is about $1,500. So that on top of rent, car insurance, things like that. The overall care for my children, it's been quite difficult," Perry said.

The legislative package targets the problem from several directions. One bill would establish a scholarship program providing up to $3,000 a year for some low-income families with children under the age of three. Oriadha is also proposing the creation of a child care navigator position within the county's Department of Family Services, a role that would help providers navigate county resources and support systems. Additional measures include grants to help new daycare facilities open and protections for parents against what the package describes as unbreakable child care contracts.

Resolution CR-15-2026 seeks to establish a nine-member workgroup of parents and experts to consider and make recommendations to the County Council on improving the availability, affordability, and quality of child care in Prince George's County.

To fund the initiatives, the legislative package proposes requiring certain businesses, including liquor stores and tobacco shops, to pay a $5,000 permit fee, with some of that funding going toward supporting child care programs and other community services. The ABC7/WJLA coverage of the package also notes self-storage facilities would face the same annual charge. No fiscal impact statement or revenue projection has been made public.

"Child care is the backbone of our workforce and our economy," Oriadha said. "If we want Prince George's County to be a place where families can put down roots and build a future, we have to invest in the systems that make that possible."

Her stated endpoint is further-reaching than the bills currently on the table. "My long-term vision would be to have free-to-sliding-scale child care that makes it affordable to every family," she said, "because when you talk to people about the ability to go back to work, the reality is child care might be more than what that person is going to make.