Though the school year helps some parents pair a 9-to-5 work schedule with their child\u2019s time at school, it also brings its own unique challenges finding afterschool programs. Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source found sources for help \u2014 and creative solutions.<\/p>\n
Available help, broad needs<\/p>\n
Early Learning Resource Centers connect parents in Pennsylvania to childcare services and provides financial subsidies. There are 19 locations<\/a>, including ELRC Region 5, which exclusively serves Allegheny County residents. (Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties share ELRC Region 4.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Janese Jackson, Region 5\u2019s outreach and resource liaison, said the center serves people across the county, though many are concentrated in Pittsburgh\u2019s North Side and East End neighborhoods. \u201cAt least hundreds\u201d of Allegheny County children are on waitlists for childcare facilities, according to Jackson.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, since the lockdown in 2020, we lost a lot of childcare providers, and it hasn\u2019t gone back to what it used to be,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cSo, the availability of childcare providers, the centers themselves and then of staff, especially the trained and experienced staff, is short.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Availability is just one problem for parents, though. For those who get past the waitlist, the cost may be prohibitively expensive. Through the Child Care Works program, ELRCs pay for a portion of a family\u2019s childcare costs. The need extends far beyond those with the lowest incomes in the county, according to Jackson.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur program for working families is called \u2018low-income,\u2019 but the income levels vary widely,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cWe have some families who, technically, are really average earning, but if they have three, four children, they\u2019re qualifying as low-income, just based on their family and the cost, again, of childcare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n High costs prompt co-op<\/p>\n Letosha Lindley, a mother of three in Washington, has tried over the years to hire babysitters. Of consideration is her middle child, who has autism, which made public school too overwhelming for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a pediatric nurse, and you\u2019d think I\u2019d be able to afford childcare, but even hiring high schoolers to babysit for us, the situation we found ourselves in over the summer was asking for $25 an hour, and she wasn\u2019t qualified in any way,\u201d Lindley said. \u201cShe didn\u2019t have clearances, she wasn\u2019t CPR certified.\u201d<\/p>\n Paying that $25 an hour, she rationalized, would essentially bring her own hourly pay down to $10 an hour. This prompted her to start a Christian homeschooling co-op, which she says has gotten lots of attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just advertised it on Facebook and was like, \u2018hey, who\u2019s interested in a co-op right in downtown Washington?\u2019 And I had 15 families respond almost immediately with interest in wanting to join,\u201d Lindley said. \u201cI actually have 12 families total that committed, and they\u2019re paid and they\u2019re ready to go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Nannies urged to \u2018stand up for yourself\u2019<\/p>\n On a warm, busy morning at O\u2019Hara Township Community Park, ducks waddled out from the ponds onto the grass and walkways, and dozens of children ran around the playgrounds together. Jaynee Osborne, a nanny with rainbow-colored glasses, kept an eye on the two kids in her care and mingled with other nannies in a rented pavilion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Being a nanny is her full-time job. She loves it.<\/p>\n Still, it can be challenging and isolating, so she likes to organize nanny get-togethers at parks and libraries. On Aug. 6, this group of nannies was observing the National Nanny Playdate<\/a>, but they try to get together once a month anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard sometimes, because you\u2019re on your own,\u201d said Kathy Loevner, an almost-40-year veteran of the nanny profession. \u201cAnd otherwise, it\u2019s good to know that there\u2019s other people that are working with the same thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For those who can afford it, hiring a nanny can bypass some of the logistical challenges of securing scarce daycare. Nannies in Pennsylvania tend to receive pay through a standard W-2 set-up, but a lack of oversight and the preference of some parents to shirk a contract and pay under the table can pose problems. Osborne said she\u2019s lucky to work with an amazing family who always operates above-board but that others aren\u2019t as fortunate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely know among my friends, they\u2019d all say my bosses are the most understanding,\u201d Osborne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Osborne said that although many nannies don\u2019t have written agreements, her group tries to promote them as a best practice. The get-togethers can turn into venting sessions, but they also build each other up. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018no, you deserve to have health insurance,\u2019\u201d Osborne said. \u201c\u2018Stand up for yourself.'”\u00a0<\/p>\n Working in childcare \u2026 to pay for childcare<\/p>\n When Juli Strang-Tryc had her first child about 16 years ago, her family joined together to help. She finished schooling to be a teacher but couldn\u2019t find a teaching job, so she went back to school for another education certification. When her child turned three, she started working for an early childhood school that offered a discount for the child to enroll while Strang-Tryc worked there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Strang-Tryc, of Munhall, said her pay was \u201cso low\u201d that even with the discount she had no expendable income left over. \u201cIf you\u2019re a teacher, a parent, with children in care, despite your earnings, it typically just becomes a wash. So we had a really great care situation, but not so great of a financial situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Six years later, she had another child who she also enrolled at her same workplace. The situation remained the same: a good childcare set up but strained finances. She loved her work, despite its challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Around three years ago, though, she worked through frequent illness during her third pregnancy. Eventually, she transitioned from classroom work to writing curriculum.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a mother, by my third, your motherly instincts, you just want to be with your child, and you know that you\u2019re the best person to care for them, to teach them,\u201d Strang-Tryc said. \u201cAnd as a teacher, you\u2019re watching so many parents bring their children to you for this expertise, for this love, for this care. And the willingness to pay insane amounts of tuition. And it can put you at the epicenter of an emotional hurricane.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though Strang-Tryc has stepped back from the classroom, she still finds ways to support other mothers. She volunteers for Mother Forward, a grassroots organization that advocates for paid leave and other childcare-related policies. She has been meeting and learning about the struggles of other mothers, both locally and in other parts of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just think that\u2019s a place where we\u2019re lacking as a society,\u201d Strang-Tryc said. \u201cDisempowering mothers to feel like they need somebody else to take care of their baby so that they can go back to work, to not really make an income. It\u2019s just a nasty cycle that you live in and you bear witness to, day after day, as an early educator and a parent.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s really freaking hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Matt Petras is a visiting professor of English for the University of Pittsburgh and a freelance reporter based in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at matt456p@gmail.com<\/a> and on Bluesky @mattapetras.bsky.social<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/pittsburgh-childcare-costs-struggles\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/www.publicsource.org”>Pittsburgh’s Public Source<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=1336649&ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/pittsburgh-childcare-costs-struggles\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/publicsource.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Matt Petras, Pittsburgh’s Public Source August 25, 2026 Terri Kaluhiokalani, an accountant living in Beechview, found daycare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5466,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-271855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-leadstorynoshow","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Letosha_Childcare.jpg\")
In front, Jeremy and Letosha Lindley, with their children, from front to back, Elli Mae, Xavier and Callen, on March 16, in Washington, Pennsylvania. Letosha started a co-op with nearby families in need of childcare. (Photo courtesy of Letosha Lindley)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Jaynee_Childcare.jpeg\")
Jaynee Osborne, a full-time nanny, at a March 2026 conference in Denver. (Courtesy of Jayne Osborne)<\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260820-Pittsburgh-childcare-cost-06.jpg\")
Juli Strang-Tryc, center, plays with with her daughters Ivy, left, 10, and Meadow, 3, on Aug. 20, at McBride Park in their town of Munhall. Strang-Tryc has seen from both sides the struggle of paying top dollar for someone else to care for your child. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.publicsource.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260820-Pittsburgh-childcare-cost-04.jpg\")
Juli Strang-Tryc pauses for a portrait on Aug. 20 at McBride Park in her town of Munhall. \u201cAs a mother, by my third, your motherly instincts, you just want to be with your child, and you know that you\u2019re the best person to care for them, to teach them,\u201d Strang-Tryc said about balancing her professional and parental life as a mom of three daughters. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n