DaycareCalc
Showing results for ZIP 55352 (MN)

Methodology

Most childcare cost sites round to the nearest plausible number and stop there. We try not to. Every figure on DaycareCalc points back to a specific authority — federal agency, state plan document, or government statistics release. If you want to check the number yourself, the source is named.

This page lays out what powers each kind of number, how often we refresh it, what we will and won't claim, and how to flag something we got wrong.

Average daycare and childcare costs

State-level and city-level cost averages are built from two primary sources. The first is the federal Administration for Children & Families (ACF), which publishes provider price surveys through its Office of Child Care. The second is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — the CPI childcare subindex and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics series. We use BLS to cross-check the year-over-year change in costs at the metro level.

Where state market-rate surveys are available (most states publish one every three years as part of their CCDF plan), we use the state's own published median. Where they aren't, we triangulate from BLS metro data and county-level provider databases.

Numbers are rounded to the nearest $10/month. We're not pretending to know that infant care in your county costs $1,237 and not $1,230.

Subsidy and assistance program eligibility

Eligibility thresholds for federal and state assistance programs come straight from the agencies that run them. We don't approximate — these are policy numbers and they're either right or they're wrong.

State CCDF data (verified per-state policy)

Most childcare-subsidy sites stop at the federal CCDF ceiling — 85% of state median income, which every state agreed to in its CCDF plan. That number is almost never the threshold a family actually faces. States set their own eligibility line, usually well below the federal cap, and they each pick a different rule. North Carolina uses 200% of the federal poverty level for kids under 6 and 133% for school-age. Massachusetts uses 50% SMI with a waitlist up to 85%. California uses 85% SMI but prioritizes CalWORKs participants.

So we read each state's policy manual and store the actual threshold, not the ceiling. Every state figure carries the source URL it came from and the last date we verified it. If a state hasn't been verified yet, we show that honestly instead of falling back to the federal estimate.

Verified states (as of June 2026)

California is the fifth state in the phase-2 GSC queue. We're deferring it for separate scoping — California's CCDF runs as four overlapping programs (CalWORKs Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and the Alternative Payment Program), and each has its own income test and priority rules. Treating it as a single "% SMI" or "% FPL" state would understate the complexity. We'll come back to it.

How we picked the pilot

NC ranked at position 4.7 in Google for "north carolina child care subsidy income limits 2026" with 11 impressions over the last 90 days — the highest single-query impressions for any state-specific CCDF query on the site, and the strongest ranking position. That made NC the right pilot: clearest signal of search intent, best existing rank, infrastructure already wired (state agency link in the checker). Better to prove the pattern on the page Google already trusts than to start on a state that hasn't surfaced yet.

Top five states by CCDF subsidy-intent impressions over the same window (the phase-2 queue):

Query filter: any query containing the state name plus a CCDF/childcare-assistance phrase (child care subsidy, daycare voucher, CCDF, CCAP, child care assistance income limits, alternative payment program). WIC, Section 8, school meal vouchers, and TANF cash-assistance queries were excluded as a separate intent. Window: 90 days ending three days before the analysis run.

Refresh cadence for state CCDF

Annually at minimum — usually in Q4, when most states publish their next fiscal year's policy. We also watch for off-cycle revisions: NC's parent-fee chapter was revised in April 2026, mid-cycle, and we caught the change within a week. If a state publishes a new CCDF state plan (the three-year filing with HHS ACF), we re-read it.

Local data and ZIP-level numbers

ZIP-level demographic data — median household income, family size distributions, commute patterns — comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. We use the most recent release available.

County-level provider counts and licensing status come from each state's child care licensing database (usually a Department of Social Services, Department of Human Services, or Department of Children and Families, depending on the state).

How often we refresh

Pages carry a "last updated" date when the underlying data was last refreshed.

What we don't claim

Every output on this site is a rounded estimate. It's a starting point for budgeting, not a quote, not a guarantee, and not advice.

We don't claim to know what the daycare on your block charges. We can't see your specific situation, your custody arrangement, your employer's dependent care FSA rules, or what your state will decide about your application. For decisions that depend on those things, talk to a person who can: a state subsidy caseworker, a tax preparer, a financial planner, or an attorney.

DaycareCalc is not legal advice, not tax advice, and not a substitute for working with a credentialed advisor when one matters.

Find a number that looks wrong?

Tell us. Email hello@daycarecalc.com with the page URL and what you think the number should be. If you have a source, paste it in. We'd rather be corrected than confidently wrong.

Built in Sacramento, CA. This methodology page last updated June 2026.