New Hampshire

Child care in N.H. can be even more expensive than housing, food, and health care – The Boston Globe

Published

2 years ago

November 21, 2024

Child care in N.H. can be even more expensive than housing, food, and health care – The Boston Globe

CONCORD, N.H. — Some New Hampshire families are spending nearly one-third of their income on child care, according to a new analysis from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.

Child care costs have gone up significantly in recent years, swelling 48 percent from 2013 to 2023 in New Hampshire, the analysis found. And there was an uptick in costs in the post-pandemic years, growing 12.5 percent from 2022 to 2023.

Take, for instance, a family with one infant and a 4-year-old going to a day-care center. They are spending, on average, $33,257 per year on child care: $17,250 per year for the infant, and $16,007 for the toddler, according to the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.

With the median family in New Hampshire with children under 5 earning about $112,230, according to the analysis, that means about 29 percent of their income would have to go to child care alone.

In the course of a year, that would make child care the single biggest expense for many families, more than the cost of housing ($11,400 to $20,772), food ($12,456 to $13,068), and health care ($12,876 to $13,068), according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.

“The prices are rapidly increasing,” said Tyrus Parker, a research scientist at the University of New Hampshire and co-author of the analysis.

What is driving that?

“I think the price increase is due to a mix of factors, although I’d be hard pressed to assign a share to any given factor,” said Jess Carson, director of the Center for Social Policy in Practice at UNH and co-author of the analysis.

The increased cost of rent, utilities, food, and cleaning supplies also affects child-care providers, she said. Plus, there are workforce shortages that can drive up wages to recruit and retain staff, she said. If they don’t have enough staff, providers have to decrease their enrollment – but that doesn’t necessarily bring a proportional savings in operating costs, according to Carson.

And, she said, now that pandemic-era aid has wound down, the only way providers can increase revenue is by increasing tuition. The economic impact can ripple out beyond the immediate families affected, taking parents who can’t afford child care out of the workforce.

“Families have to make compromises based on their economic realities,” said Parker.

“Maybe a family would like their child to be in care five days a week, but instead they have to opt for three days, and then one of the parents goes down to working part time just because the cost of child care is too high,” he said.

This story first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.

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New Hampshire

Officer injured after being struck by vehicle while responding to crash in Londonderry, N.H. – The Boston Globe

Published

4 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Press Room

A motorcycle cop in Londonderry, N.H. was responding to a crash when they were struck and injured by another vehicle Thursday night, an official said.

The officer was taken to Elliott Hospital in Manchester. They were in stable condition Thursday night, said Jeremy P. Mague, a battalion chief of the Londonderry Fire Department.

The officer was struck on Hardy Road near Pheasant Run at about 6 p.m., Mague said in an email.

Police and fire responded to the scene and provided aid to the officer. The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and is cooperating with investigators, Mague said.

Hardy Road in Londonderry was temporarily closed Mague said.

The officer had been responding to a single-vehicle rollover crash on Stonehenge Road. The driver was trapped inside the vehicle and was extricated by Londonderry firefighters.

The driver was taken to a local hospital, Mague said. His condition was not known Thursday night.

Adam Sennott can be reached at adam.sennott@globe.com.

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire court reverses father’s murder conviction in case of missing 5-year-old girl

Published

14 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Press Room

New Hampshire court reverses father’s murder conviction in case of missing 5-year-old girl

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a murder conviction for a man accused of killing his 5-year-old daughter and moving her corpse around for months before disposing of it.

Though her body has never been found, police believe Harmony Montgomery was killed in 2019, nearly two years before she was reported missing. Her father, Adam Montgomery, was sentenced to a minimum of 56 years in prison in 2024 after being convicted of second-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, falsifying evidence, witness tampering and assault.

The Supreme Court, however, reversed the most serious charge, agreeing with Montgomery that the lesser assault charge should have been prosecuted separately. It sent the second-degree murder charge back to the lower court while letting the other convictions stand.

In their unanimous ruling, justices said combining the cases jeopardized Montgomery’s right to a fair trial because jurors may have used the stronger evidence about the assault to conclude, based on weaker evidence, that he killed her months later.

“There was a significant risk that the jury would draw the impermissible inference that because the defendant assaulted the victim before by striking her in the head, he must be the one who fatally assaulted her in December by again striking her in the head,” the justices said.

The second-degree murder conviction accounts for 45 years of Montgomery’s 56-years-to-life sentence, which was imposed on top of an earlier 32 ½-year sentence he already was serving on unrelated gun charges.

The attorney general’s office said Thursday it will pursue a retrial on the second-degree murder charge.

“We remain confident in the facts of this case, the evidence presented, and the exceptional work of our prosecutors, investigators, and law enforcement partners,” said spokesperson Michael Garrity. “We will continue our efforts to seek justice for Harmony Montgomery and all those who knew and loved her.”

Montgomery’s attorneys did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Last year, the state agreed to pay $2.25 million to Harmony Montgomery’s mother to settle a lawsuit accusing social workers of ignoring signs that the girl was being abused by her father after he was awarded custody in early 2019. Crystal Sorey went to police in 2021, and in 2022 authorities announced that they believed Harmony was dead.

Adam Montgomery did not attend his trial in February 2022, and his lawyers called no defense witnesses. His attorneys acknowledged he was guilty of falsifying evidence and abusing a corpse, but they said he did not kill Harmony and instead suggested the girl actually died while alone with her stepmother, Kayla Montgomery.

Kayla Montgomery, who served an 18-month prison sentence for lying to a grand jury about where she was when Harmony was last seen, was the star witness for the prosecution. She testified that her husband killed Harmony on Dec. 7, 2019, while the family lived in their car. Montgomery was driving to a fast-food restaurant when he turned around and repeatedly punched Harmony in the face and head because he was angry that she was having bathroom accidents in the car, she said. He then hid the body in the trunk of a car, in a ceiling vent of a homeless shelter and in the walk-in freezer at his workplace before disposing of it in March 2020, she said.

Kayla Montgomery said she tried to stop her husband from hitting the girl but was scared of him and that he beat her as well as he grew paranoid that she would go to police.

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire outdoor skills workshop for women – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Published

1 day ago

June 11, 2026

Press Room

New Hampshire outdoor skills workshop for women – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Registration for the New Hampshire Becoming an Outdoors Woman Fall Weekend Workshop will open June 16 at 8 a.m.

The workshop is scheduled for Sept. 11-13 at Camp Robindel on Lake Winnipesaukee in Moultonborough and is open to women ages 18 and older. The $395 registration fee includes lodging, meals, instruction and equipment use.

Participants may choose from more than 30 outdoor skills classes, including archery, fishing, fly fishing, kayaking, hiking, rifle and shotgun shooting, nature photography, outdoor survival, campfire cooking, map and compass navigation, and plant identification.

Registration will be conducted online at nhbow.com and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Organizers said classes fill quickly. Registration closes July 27, and participants may receive a partial refund if they cancel by July 13.

The New Hampshire Becoming an Outdoors Woman program is co-sponsored by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation.

Ryann Brooks is the Ledger-Transcript editor. She was the 2023 Kansas Press Association Journalist of the Year. You can contact her at rbrooks@ledgertranscript.com.
More by Ryann Brooks

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