While many may be celebrating getting an extra week of summer vacation before Labor Day on September 7, some parents are scratching their heads.
In places like New York City, school doesn’t start until after the holidays. However, many summer camps have ended by then, and parents of young children must consider childcare until the new school year begins. The first day of public school in New York City is September 10th.
Most U.S. public schools will have their first day of school by the end of August, according to education data firm MDR Education. But many schools, especially in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota, will open in September. Minnesota has a state law requiring schools to start after Labor Day, but suspended that regulation for the 2026 and 2027 school years because of the late timing of the holiday.
Calendar challenges can be costly for parents, whether it means an extra week of summer care or an extra year of early childhood care for a child who turns 5 after the district’s kindergarten cutoff date. If parents aren’t careful, what seems like a scheduling quirk can turn into an expensive surprise, says Lindsey Stanberry, a certified financial planner and household advisor at Babylist, a registry, e-commerce, and content platform for families.
“Most things involve kids and money, so the key is to plan ahead and try to build in some flexibility,” she says. “It seems crazy to people who don’t have kids, but families start planning summer camp in January or February, six months before summer starts.”
Other parents are planning to take time off from work to stay home with their kids or take family vacations during the period between summer activities and back-to-school, she said.
Next year Labor Day will be on September 6th. This is another opportunity for families to plan on spending a few extra days in the summer. If you have a young family, economists say you might want to look further ahead, because the calendar can have a bigger impact on your family’s child care spending than you realize.
Your child’s birthday can increase your total child care costs
Generally, parents who must pay for child care can expect to pay for up to five years before their child begins kindergarten at a free public school. According to Care.com, only three states — Florida, Oklahoma and Vermont — and some cities, including New York and Washington, D.C., offer universally free preschool for 4-year-olds. If your school district doesn’t offer free kindergarten and your child turns 5 later this year, he or she may need an additional year of full-time childcare or private kindergarten.
Each state has different cutoff dates, usually around September 1, as children must be 5 years old the year they enroll in kindergarten, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The deadline can be as late as October 15 in Maine and as early as July 31 in some states, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
For example, in some school districts, a child who turns 5 in late September may have to wait until the following year to start kindergarten just before his or her sixth birthday, while a child who turns 5 in August can start kindergarten that year. For parents of babies born late, this could mean nearly an extra year of childcare costs, which can average $17,264 a year nationally, according to a study by LendingTree.
Therefore, it may be somewhat financially advantageous to aim to have a baby earlier in the year. However, as many families say, it is not so easy to plan pregnancy until the month when the baby is due to be born. And no matter when a child is born, “it always costs money to have a child!” Stanberry says.
If you’re planning on having children, it’s a good idea to research your district’s preschool options and kindergarten closing age and plan accordingly. That might mean exploring a different field or opening a dedicated savings account.
“You can plan! And frankly, the sooner you start saving, the better,” she added. “I don’t think the cost of children should deter people from starting a family, but I also think they need to be realistic about how much it costs.”
Childcare expenses can cost close to 3 million yen per year.
Child care costs vary widely depending on the state and the age of the child. In Mississippi, which has the lowest costs, families pay an average of $7,220 a year for infant child care and $6,571 a year for 4-year-old child care, according to a 2025 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Families in Washington, D.C., have the highest annual costs, averaging $29,809 for infant care and $23,877 for a 4-year-old. D.C. offers free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, but EPI notes that not all families may be able to access these programs due to availability and other barriers.
Stanberry says there really aren’t any cheap or easy solutions when it comes to childcare costs. But having the proverbial “village” of friends and family to help makes things easier, especially during the interim months, such as late summer.
“People often resent this proposal because it takes effort to build this community and it doesn’t happen overnight,” she says. “It also usually requires some return. But it can be very helpful in saving you money and your sanity.”
In some families, one parent may be able to stay home with the child full-time and the calculation may be based on the other parent’s income. However, the best solution financially may not be the best solution emotionally.
“Everything has a price, and it’s not always paid,” says Andy Smith, CFP and executive director of financial planning at Edelman Financial Engines. Whether choosing multiple child care providers or weighing stay-at-home parents, he encourages families to consider non-financial costs such as the quality of child care provided, distance to the child care center, and the impact on parents’ careers.
“Your price is not necessarily a dollar function. Your price is a mental and emotional response that you have to make (the decision) as you see it built into the plan in front of you,” he says.
Both he and Stanberry stress the importance of planning as much as possible in advance. Unexpected costs are sure to come up, but for big-ticket items like daycare, try to figure out the costs as soon as possible. When Ms. Stanberry became pregnant with her son, she researched the costs of local daycare centers and began putting that money into monthly savings.
“The added benefit was that I was able to get used to my new budget before the baby was born, and it also helped me build a small nest egg for future expenses,” she says.
Smith says everyone, whether they have kids or not, needs to get a rough idea of how much money they’re bringing in and how much they’re spending on essentials. And if you don’t have a plan to continue achieving your goals after your baby is born, he says, the period leading up to your baby is “probably a really good time to do that, because all of a sudden you have additional needs that you have to consider.”
“But ultimately we will be testing what happens when we incorporate these additions (childcare fees).”
