After-School Care Costs Hit Hard After Divorce — but I Don’t Regret It

While going through a divorce in 2020, the topic of after-school care for our two children came up, along with the associated cost. My son was in third grade, and my daughter was starting kindergarten. The thought of my kids being home alone after school gave me so much anxiety. I was insistent about adding after-school care details to the divorce decree, and I agreed that my ex and I would split the cost.

Because we divorced during the pandemic, I had forgotten about after-school care for about six months, as my kids were doing virtual learning at home. However, when their school reopened, the cost of care hit me hard.

I was starting to get my life in order

I had just started working my job in communications, and I was adjusting to paying rent, a car payment, insurance, and so much more as a new divorced parent. At the time, the added expense of the after-school program was out of my budget.

I didn’t realize how expensive the program at my kids’ school would be. I enrolled the kids and created an account for our family with my credit card, and my kids’ father sent his portion each month. Still, it felt expensive.

There was only one program on-site at my kids’ school in Houston, which now costs around $400 a month for one child, not including additional registration fees, bringing it to about $2,000 per semester.

I tried to look on the bright side. The program meant my kids always had a place to go after school; they were familiar with the place, they were with their friends, it was close to my home, and the pickup extended until 6 p.m., giving me more time to work. Having the kids enrolled in the same place for after care meant less co-parenting, too.

I like knowing there’s a plan for my kids

Even though I worked remotely at home every other week and didn’t need the program as much on a daily basis, I still wanted it. Mostly it was a peace of mind for me. I appreciated knowing that a plan was already in place for my kids, should I need it for a work meeting, running an errand, if one child had a doctor’s appointment and the other didn’t, or if I had an appointment myself.

Not every family has a babysitter, nanny, neighbor, or grandparent to help out after school.

For a divorced parent like me, it was important to include in our decree helpful terms about enrollment for after-school childcare. For example, how care fees will be paid and the terms for determining the program.

After-school enrollment is so competitive

Options and enrollment can be limited depending on where you live, and it can be so competitive just to get your kid into a program. Some programs base their enrollments on lottery systems and are booked many months in advance of the school year. This can mean scrambling to figure out a now-what plan if enrollment fills up. Care for a few hours after school shouldn’t be so complicated.

Before living in Houston, I lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and I was surprised to see online that the after-school program at a public school near my previous home cost around $750 to $900 per semester. On the other hand, in my hometown near Syracuse, New York, the after-school care rate for one child, five days a week, is $116 a week. The cost of after-school care appears to vary significantly depending on one’s location.

Although after-school programs for my kids led to being thousands of dollars in debt that I’m still paying off five years later, I don’t regret it.