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Child Care Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on our already fragile child care system. Providers have closed, others are struggling, and everyone it seems is realizing that without child care, America can’t get back to work. (Yes, child care is infrastructure.) Early Learning Nation is covering the field with rigor and nuance from a historical perspective (Universal Child Care was a great success during WWII), to the latest legislative proposals and to ways that we must transform the way we treat our undervalued and largely unseen child care workforce.

The Early Childhood Workforce in Lafayette, La. Wants Pay, Benefits and R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Mark Swartz·January 17, 2023·4 min read

Every time Emmy Thibodeaux drops off or picks up her two-year-old son at child care, there’s a situation being managed,...

RAND Report Highlights Unique Challenges Facing Hawaii’s Early Child Care Workforce

Leigh Giangreco·January 3, 2023·6 min read

The early child care education workforce was strained even before the pandemic. Poor pay and benefits not only hurt recruitment...

Iowa Governor Refuses Federal Early Childhood Money Despite Child Care Crisis

Bryce Covert·December 12, 2022·8 min read

Deborah VanderGaast originally started running a child care business out of her home in Tipton, Iowa in 2005 serving children...

Neighborhood Villages: Boston-Based Child Care Innovation Lab for Solutions that Can Scale

K.C. Compton·November 10, 2022·9 min read

The child care landscape throughout the U.S. can put just about anyone in a grim frame of mind. The problems...

On Tomorrow’s Ballot, New Mexico Votes on Funding Universal Child Care

Q and A with a New Mexico Child Care Policy Expert

Rebecca Gale·November 7, 2022·8 min read

New Mexico made national headlines in the spring of 2022 when Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham waived child care subsidy copays...

Squaring Up with History: Child Trends’ Chrishana Lloyd and Julianna Carlson Dig Deep on the Value of Care

Mark Swartz·November 4, 2022·5 min read

A new report commissioned by the Early Educator Investment Collaborative—Mary Pauper: A Historical Exploration of Early Care and Education Compensation,...

Lessons for Reporting on Child Care – A Glimpse Into the Future

Rebecca Gale·October 12, 2022·5 min read

A former editor of mine, while editing a policy-heavy story that needed more depth, lamented the demise of beat reporting....

What Does Accountable and Justice-Oriented Early Childhood Education Look Like?

Part 5 of a 5-Part Series

Ai Binh Ho·September 21, 2022·25 min read

Many immigrant parents express fear around ECE centers. They worry that their child rearing practices, which may be historically rooted and culturally normative, may be viewed as abuse in the U.S. They also fear being tracked, monitored or reported.

Taking Care of Kids Makes Balancing Work and Life Harder — Particularly for Moms, Poll Finds

Jennifer Gerson and Jasmine Mithani·September 16, 2022·6 min read

The challenge mothers in particular face isn’t new — but it is complex and was only exacerbated by the pandemic. A new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll sheds light on the issue.

“I Can’t Compete”: Child Care Providers are Losing Staff to McDonald’s and Target

Bryce Covert·August 30, 2022·9 min read

Khulood Jamil never shut the doors of her home child care in California’s Bay Area in the early days of...