Daycare cost in Long Beach, by age.

Long Beach sits inside the Los Angeles County childcare market, so its prices track the wider region while running below the Westside. The public-funding picture is the same California system: Universal Prekindergarten for four-year-olds, a tiered CalWORKs subsidy underneath it, and the Alternative Payment program for working families. This guide pulls the most recent county-level data, applies it to Long Beach, and shows where each range comes from.

The headline numbers

In 2026 dollars, full-time center-based daycare in Long Beach runs roughly $1,500 to $2,000 per month for infants and roughly $1,275 to $1,650 per month for preschool-age children. Licensed family child care homes, both small and large under California Title 22, typically charge 15 to 30 percent less than centers in the same part of the city. These figures are ranges drawn from the National Database of Childcare Prices for Los Angeles County, the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network market rate survey, and our operator survey, not single-point averages.

Infant care prices above preschool-age care because of staff-to-child ratios. The California Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division sets the licensed-center infant ratio at one adult to four infants under Title 22, with group size capped at twelve. Paying several qualified teachers across small infant rooms is the single largest line in a center's budget, which is why infant tuition runs 20 to 25 percent above the preschool rate.

By age and care type

Daycare is expensive, and there is no easy way around that in coastal Los Angeles County. Quality also varies widely inside a single price band, so a higher rate does not guarantee a better program. Use the ranges above to sanity-check a quote, then judge each center on its license, ratios, and staff turnover rather than its price alone.

The UPK and TK effect

If your child is four during the school year, California's Universal Prekindergarten changes the arithmetic. In Long Beach, UPK is delivered as Transitional Kindergarten through Long Beach Unified School District. As of the 2025-2026 school year, TK is open to every child who turns four by September 1, free, on a standard school-day schedule of roughly six hours.

TK does not cover a full working week or year. Families who need wraparound hours typically pair TK with before- and after-school care at the same site or with a community-based provider. TK is separate from the income-targeted California State Preschool Program and from Head Start, both of which serve eligible three- and four-year-olds at Long Beach sites.

Subsidy math: CalWORKs, Alternative Payment, vouchers

California's subsidy system runs in layers through the Department of Social Services. CalWORKs Stage 1 serves families currently on cash aid, Stage 2 serves former and stably employed cash aid families, and Stage 3 serves income-eligible families above the CalWORKs line up to 85 percent of the state median income. Working families without a CalWORKs history apply for the Alternative Payment program and the California Child Care and Development Voucher.

In the Long Beach area, Alternative Payment intake runs through agencies such as Crystal Stairs and Children's Home Society of California. Every one of these programs uses a sliding family fee set by the state, and the subsidy travels with the family to any participating provider, including some license-exempt relative care. California raised provider reimbursement rates and lowered family fees in recent state budgets, so confirm the current fee schedule with your local agency before counting the subsidy in your monthly math.

Federal and state credits

Three federal tools stack on top of any California subsidy: the Child and Dependent Care Credit on IRS Form 2441, a Dependent Care FSA at many employers worth up to $5,000 per household per year in pre-tax savings, and the federal Child Tax Credit. California adds its own Child and Dependent Care Expenses Credit and the Young Child Tax Credit for families with a qualifying child under six. Read our daycare tax credit explainer and Dependent Care FSA guide before tax season.

Where to go next

Walk through the cost calculator to model your own Long Beach year with UPK, Alternative Payment subsidy, FSA, and the federal and state credits factored in. For the wider region, compare with daycare cost in Los Angeles and the California state cost overview. The California childcare subsidy guide and the California TK explainer cover the public programs in depth, and you can see listings and neighborhoods on the Long Beach city guide.