Daycare in Cambridge.

Cambridge is its own city with its own school district, sitting across the Charles from Boston with Harvard at one end and MIT at the other. The Red Line spine runs from Alewife through Porter, Harvard, Central, and Kendall, and most Cambridge families with young children live within a short walk of one of those stops. The daycare market is unusually deep for a city of this size, in part because Harvard and MIT both run their own family centers, in part because the city's Department of Human Service Programs (DHSP) operates a network of subsidized programs through its Office of Early Care and Out of School Time, and in part because the EEC-licensed family child care home market is strong on the side streets. Cambridge Public Schools also runs a Junior Kindergarten program for four-year-olds, separate from Boston's BPS K1 system.

What you'll actually pay

In 2026 dollars, full-time center-based daycare in Cambridge runs roughly $2,400 to $3,100 per month for infants and roughly $1,950 to $2,500 per month for preschool-age children, drawing on the National Database of Childcare Prices for Middlesex County and on EEC licensing data. EEC-licensed family child care homes price lower, in the $1,600 to $2,000 per month range for infants, and they are a meaningful share of supply, particularly between Porter and North Cambridge. Nanny shares run $1,900 to $2,400 per child per month.

Cambridge tuition sits roughly in line with the broader Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro for centers but with a deeper supply of subsidized programs through the city's DHSP/OECOST network and through Harvard- and MIT-affiliated family centers. A Cambridge family whose employer is one of the universities will often find an on-campus center option that, after sliding-scale tuition and dependent care benefit, runs meaningfully below the open-market rate.

EEC licensing and the quality floor

Every Cambridge center and family child care home is licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care under 606 CMR 7.00. The regulation sets ratios, background checks, square-footage minimums, curriculum standards, and incident reporting. EEC publishes each provider's licensing history on its public portal, and a Cambridge family should pull the report before signing a deposit. Cambridge also has an above-average density of QRIS Level 3 and 4 providers, in part because the DHSP/OECOST network and Harvard- and MIT-affiliated centers operate to standards well above the licensing floor.

Cambridge Public Schools junior kindergarten

Cambridge Public Schools runs its own preschool framework, separate from the Boston Public Schools K1 system. CPS operates Junior Kindergarten (JK) for four-year-olds and a smaller preschool program for three-year-olds at several school sites and partner community providers. JK seats are free, are administered through the CPS Office of Student Registration, and follow the Cambridge controlled-choice assignment plan. Cambridge also participates in the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative, the state grant that funds high-quality preschool seats at community providers partnered with public schools. A Cambridge family with a four-year-old should apply to JK at the start of the application window and rank multiple sites; a family with a three-year-old should ask about CPS Preschool and CPPI partners.

Massachusetts Child Care Financial Assistance

Income-eligible families can apply for Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA), the Massachusetts subsidy administered through the Child Care Resource and Referral network. CCFA pays part of the cost at a participating EEC-licensed provider, with a family copay set on a sliding scale based on household income and family size. The subsidy can be used at a center or an EEC-licensed family child care home with an open contracted slot. The Cambridge DHSP Office of Early Care and Out of School Time also runs city-funded sliding-scale programs that operate alongside CCFA, with its own income calculation and waitlist. A Cambridge family seeking subsidized care should sit with the DHSP/OECOST intake team to map both options.

Federal credits and the Massachusetts stack

Three federal tools stack on top of any JK seat or CCFA subsidy: the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit on IRS Form 2441, the Dependent Care FSA (up to $5,000 per household per year of pre-tax savings), and the federal Child Tax Credit. Massachusetts adds a state Dependent Care Tax Credit at $310 per qualifying child as of the 2024 tax year, expanded to apply to every qualifying child, plus a refundable Massachusetts Earned Income Tax Credit at 40 percent of the federal EITC. A two-earner Cambridge household paying the full private rate typically recovers $1,800 to $2,400 in combined federal tax savings on the $5,000 FSA alone, plus the state credit. Harvard and MIT employees can additionally tap dependent-care benefit programs through their respective HR offices.

Sample Cambridge centers

Listings reflect editorial picks, not paid placements, and pricing is the published rate before any subsidized seat or federal and state tax credit. Verified by DaycareSquare editorial — last reviewed May 2026. Full Cambridge listings directory is in progress.

Frequently asked

Where to go next

Walk through the cost calculator to model your Cambridge year with the FSA, the federal Child and Dependent Care Credit, and the Massachusetts state credit factored in. Read our Massachusetts UPK explainer, the Boston-area cost overview, the broader cost pillar, and our daycare comparison checklist before you book visits. For neighboring areas, see Somerville daycare and Brookline daycare, or step back to all Boston.