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Child Care

Despite being a critical economic support for working families and a key lever for promoting early learning and social-emotional development, child care is inaccessible and unaffordable for far too many families across the United States. The cost of providing high-quality child care is beyond what most families are able to pay, and child care subsidies that offset some of those costs only reach a fraction of eligible families and fail to meet providers’ true financial needs. Even when families can afford child care expenses, many face challenges with finding a seat in a program close to their home or work or with availability to work with their schedule. More than half of the U.S. population lives in a child care desert, with low-income, rural, and Hispanic and Latino communities facing the highest rates of child care deserts. Child care workers—who are overwhelmingly women and disproportionately women of color—are paid poverty wages with few if any benefits, driving a workforce recruitment and retention issue.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the child care crisis into focus, but historic underinvestment and inaction on child care has resulted in a child care system that does not adequately meet the needs of anyone it should. The time is long overdue for large-scale public investments in a child care system that truly meets the needs of all families and fairly compensates the essential work of educators who make up the child care workforce.

Related Team
Early Childhood Policy

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Promising Models To Support and Expand the Early Childhood Educator Workforce Report
Young children sitting on bench

Promising Models To Support and Expand the Early Childhood Educator Workforce

Early childhood educators do critical work in educating the nation’s youngest learners. Recruiting, retaining, and expanding the workforce through investments in their compensation and benefits must be prioritized.

Erin Grant

Fact Sheet: What To Know About the Child Care for Working Families Act Fact Sheet
A parent picks up his kids at a child care center.

Fact Sheet: What To Know About the Child Care for Working Families Act

The Child Care for Working Families Act would make child care more accessible and affordable, promote high-quality care options, and support child care workers.

The Early Childhood Policy Team

Why Trump’s Pronatalist Agenda Is Actually Anti-Motherhood In the News

Why Trump’s Pronatalist Agenda Is Actually Anti-Motherhood

In an op-ed for Ms. Magazine, Sara Estep discusses how President Trump and Vice President Vance’s pronatalist agenda is actually at odds with what mothers and their families need to thrive.

Ms. Magazine

Sara Estep

Executive Summary: Differentiating Between Harmful Child Care Deregulation and Helpful Reform Fact Sheet
A preschooler is lying down on a cot and smiling up at the adult sitting in front of her. Three other children, napping on their respective cots, are in the background.

Executive Summary: Differentiating Between Harmful Child Care Deregulation and Helpful Reform

Instead of rolling back critical child care regulations, policymakers should streamline regulations and reduce administrative burdens that are not directly tied to child health, safety, and quality learning.

Allie Schneider, Hailey Gibbs, Lauren Hogan, 4 More Casey Peeks, Paola Andujar, Maria Estlund, Daniel Hains

A Path Forward on Child Care Regulation: Differentiating Between Harmful Deregulation and Helpful Reform Report

A Path Forward on Child Care Regulation: Differentiating Between Harmful Deregulation and Helpful Reform

States can and should make child care licensing reforms that ease burdens on providers and improve access—but must do so without endangering child health and safety.

Hailey Gibbs, Allie Schneider, Lauren Hogan, 4 More Casey Peeks, Paola Andujar, Maria Estlund, Daniel Hains

5 Things To Know About Head Start Report
A child from the Hyde Park Head Start program plays under a parachute.

5 Things To Know About Head Start

Head Start provides educational, health, nutritional, and social services to hundreds of thousands of young children and their families every year, playing a critical role in the U.S. early care and learning landscape.

Casey Peeks, Allie Schneider

Increased Bipartisan Focus on Child Care Must Lead To Congressional Action Report
Children sled on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

Increased Bipartisan Focus on Child Care Must Lead To Congressional Action

CAP analysis finds that the 118th Congress, facing more pressure than ever to address the nation’s child care crisis, oversaw a significant increase in the introduction of bipartisan child care and early learning bills.

Allie Schneider, Erin Grant

Understanding the Basics of Child Care in the United States Article
Children sit on the rug at the TLC for Tots daycare center in Nampa, Idaho, November 20, 2024.

Understanding the Basics of Child Care in the United States

The United States needs real solutions at all levels of government, coupled with robust public investment, to build a child care and early learning system that works for children, families, educators, and providers.

The Early Childhood Policy Team

Head Start funding freeze: The panic was the point In the News

Head Start funding freeze: The panic was the point

In an op-ed published by the Wisconsin Examiner, Casey Peeks discusses Trump’s funding freeze and how it continues to affect Head Start programs across the country.

the Wisconsin Examiner

Casey Peeks

A 2024 Review of Child Care and Early Learning in the United States Report

A 2024 Review of Child Care and Early Learning in the United States

Updated data on child care and early learning in the United States illustrate the urgent need for holistic public policymaking and robust investments that support young children, families, and early educators.

Allie Schneider

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