Originally published November 4, 2026 in the Palo Alto Weekly/Online

By George Lu, Greer Stone and Vicki Veenker

For a Palo Alto family with two young children, childcare can exceed $70,000 a year. Infant care commonly costs $3,000 to $4,000 a month, while preschool ranges from $2,000 to $3,000.

That’s assuming parents can find openings for both children. Waitlists are common, particularly for infant care; a 2024 County study estimated that Palo Alto was short by more than 800 infant spaces.

For couples balancing work and housing costs, childcare shapes careers, living situations, and decisions whether to have children at all. These consequences reverberate across our city, contributing to Palo Alto Unified’s enrollment decline over the last decade.

Childcare is a national challenge with no single culprit or solution, though Palo Alto has found ways to support childcare before.

More than 50 years ago, local parents worked with the City Council to establish Palo Alto Community Child Care. Over a decade ago, we exempted childcare from some city fees and adopted zoning incentives for childcare in commercial buildings. We’re proud that the city continues to support lower-income families, allocating $607k for financial aid in our 2026 budget. 

We want Palo Alto to be one of the best places in our country to raise children. We need new solutions for today’s childcare costs and challenges, and that’s why we’re proposing legislation to enable and incentivize more childcare across the city. 

Physical space is a major obstacle. We’ve heard from religious institutions eager to host childcare centers, as well as providers like Palo Alto Community Child Care actively searching for room to expand. We also heard about a preschool’s permit being delayed for months while they sought to find a single additional offsite parking space to meet city minimums.

We want to reduce remaining city fees on childcare, and strengthen existing incentives for offices and commercial buildings to offer childcare space.

We also want childcare to be available in neighborhoods throughout the city, learning from reforms by other agencies. In 2021, San Mateo County created simpler permits that approve childcare centers, including those based out of single family homes, within an estimated three to four weeks assuming reasonable objective standards are met. In 2020, Seattle relaxed many zoning restrictions and allowed childcare by right in residential neighborhoods, saving an average of five months from the permitting process.

We already know that childcare can fit into Palo Alto’s neighborhoods. A dozen centers operate at religious institutions, and roughly 20 operate out of homes. Of course, neighbors will have valid concerns about noise, traffic, and operating hours, which need to be codified as objective standards. Our legislation will start a community process to work on those ground rules.

On Nov. 16, the city council will discuss our proposals, and we want to hear your voice. Our proposals are only the first step. We want the next generation of childcare centers to expand with greater affordability. If we want young families to put down roots and build their futures here, we need to make room for them. Earlier generations of Palo Altans found creative ways to support childcare, and we’re determined to do the same.

George Lu, Vice Mayor Greer Stone and Mayor Vicki Veenker are members of the Palo Alto City Council.