Having access to money outside of one’s own income to pay a loved one for care is becoming increasingly normalized. This option has long existed with systems like Bright Horizons, but it’s never been widely known about or widely used. The pandemic opened up this option to employers with companies like UrbanSitter and Vivvi making it more accessible, and in turn, more widely adopted. It’s an exciting trend in helping to bring visibility and value to unpaid labor, though many employers have since dropped this option now that care needs are slightly less acute. There’s still much work to be done with employers in shifting the cultural perception of “free” care work from loved ones. States are also implementing new systems that are enabling payments to family caregivers. One example: the state of California has a Medicaid Waiver for freedom of choice that allows Californians to pay family caregivers directly through Medicaid.

The American Rescue Plan allocated $39 billion in child care relief to states and providers, which was the largest child care allocation by the federal government ever in U.S. history. $15 billion of the total were discretionary funds, allowing flexibility for states to determine what was most pressing for their particular needs. The funds are still being allocated in innovative ways by some states, such as Minnesota where they created a task force to develop a 10-year plan for making child care more accessible for parents and sustainable for workers as a lifelong career. Another example is Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, where they are using the funding on a community-centered approach to build quality networks. Although this money is temporary, those who are implementing wisely are gathering data from the initiatives to make a case for more in the future. 

While lawmakers at the federal level continue to debate the cost and necessity of expanding access to child care across the country, states are filling the void in various ways. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted an acute need for child care and advocates have been vocal that the need is pervasive for many families, which is leading to new political motivation for solutions. 

Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois for example, has proposed “Smart Start,” which would include $250 million in funding next year for child care providers and early childhood block grants, as well as early intervention programs. Governor Pritzker has set goals of adding 5,000 new preschool spots in the next year, 20,000 new spots over the next four years and offering universal preschool by 2027. Colorado passed a nicotine tax via ballot measure in 2020 to fund half-day preschool with widespread support across the state. New Mexico, California, Michigan, Vermont, and others are also making strides towards expanding access to preschool or offering universal pre-K within the next few years through various initiatives. Ultimately, there’s a significant opportunity for the states to implement policies that work for their local context and support both child development and working families.

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Safety is naturally a parent’s number one concern when considering who will care for their children. While the experience of finding a caregiver was previously based primarily on networking with neighbors and relationships developed with trust, technology has enabled parents to easily verify the background of those watching their children and to keep an eye on the kids while they’re away. TrustLine is a database of non-licensed in-home caregivers including nannies and babysitters in California and enables parents to quickly check the background of anyone watching their children. Care websites, like Urbansitter and Care.com, also utilize background checks for caregivers, providing consumers with a valuable stamp of approval prior to engaging. This also expands the pool of potential caregivers for parents who don’t have a close network for referrals. 

Advances in other technologies such as the broad commercialization of “nanny cameras” have also enabled parents to feel that their children are secure, because they can easily see what’s going on in their homes at any given time and, simultaneously, create more accountability for the caregiver who knows they can be observed. These tools are significant in providing parents with peace of mind when they leave their children.

Platforms like Winnie, Kinside, and Bridgecare are leading the way in developing technology to build a more efficient child care system. Whether it’s streamlining administrative tasks like billing, improving communication with parents or providing
a database of child care centers with available spots in a select vicinity, these tools are all helping child care centers and the system to run more effectively. Adoption of these tools by care providers can lead to less time on paperwork and more face to face time with children. Additionally, these technological innovations are especially important in the face of a severe worker supply shortage, which is leaving providers short-staffed and overworked. Aggregating platforms, like Bridgecare, are also extraordinarily valuable in collecting data to build the case for new policy that addresses the dearth of child care in this country. 

President Biden's recent Executive Order (EO) aims to make child care more affordable and accessible with an array of over 50 actions spanning multiple federal agencies. Biden's directive revolves around two crucial aspects: the cost of child care for families and the compensation of care workers. The EO intends to address these by enacting new regulations and policies without requiring substantial additional public funding. The EO emphasizes collaboration among federal agencies, recognizing that child care touches a wide range of spheres, from workforce participation to family stability. It also includes initiatives such as improving compensation for Head Start staff, extending health insurance access to child care workers, and bolstering mental health support for them. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other agencies are set to examine ways to reduce child care expenses, eliminate eligibility barriers for subsidies and Head Start, and enhance child care affordability for military personnel. While the EO doesn't fulfill Biden's initial proposals for comprehensive child care coverage, it reflects an effort to take incremental steps towards more accessible and affordable child care

Families across the U.S. are struggling to find affordable child care and the problem seems to have no end in sight without significant investment from the federal or state governments. A study published late in 2022 by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimated that families in the U.S. are spending on average 14% of their income on center-based care for a single child. This study also found that there’s a tradeoff between quality child care and affordability - states with lower child-to-staff ratios, which leads to more one-on-one attention, were less affordable overall. Another major driver of the cost of child care is wages, which account for a significant portion of operating expenses and, yet, are barely enough for the workers who are receiving them. Families are paying as much for one year of child care as they would pay for one year of public college, but they don’t have the same amount of time for planning and saving for child care as they do for college. This is forcing parents to leave the workforce to care for their children or to work at jobs where they can work less hours; this is especially true for women. The National Database of Child care Prices shows that in places where child care prices are high, mothers are less likely to be employed outside the home, even in locations with higher wages. Families deploy various patchwork solutions, including having older siblings or aging adults watch younger children, to enable parents to work; however, these can’t substantially fill the void in the way that government support could. 

Child care providers are part of the backbone of the American economy, enabling others to participate in the labor force. While their value to many is priceless and the demand is high, the supply is low and hard to come by for many families.
The COVID-19 pandemic decimated a system that was already broken with estimates showing that nearly 90,000 workers left the child care industry between February 2020 and July 2022, and 16,000 child care programs closed, approximately 9% of the industry’s licensed providers. The problem is pervasive, with a study by the Center for American Progress showing that about half of the neighborhoods in the U.S. qualify as “child care desserts,” which are defined as places where three children compete for each available spot at a licensed child care center. This is exacerbated in rural areas, where the number increases to 60% of families not having any access to child care at all. While the number of child care workers is slowly rebounding from its low point during the pandemic, there were still nearly 58,000 fewer child care workers in January 2023 than in February 2020. As wages rise in other industries, like fast food and retail, competition for these workers is real. 

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With good intentions, governors from New Mexico to Arkansas have been pushing for universal access to preschool or pre-kindergarten for three and four year olds. While this is good news for these children, there are significant ripple effects of implementing these programs. As older toddlers leave the child care setting for formal school, the cost of infant care goes up. Already strapped child care providers have an even harder time keeping their teacher-to-child ratio in compliance. One example of this is from when New York City expanded universal education to include all 4-year olds in 2014, causing child care programs that previously had toddler and infant spots to shift to serving the newly eligible pre-kindergarten students who would be paid for by the government.¹ This ultimately led to a 15-20% reduction in the total availability for infant/toddler care (children under 2). It also affected the quality of care being provided with educators moving to the publicly funded programs that offered more competitive wages and better benefits. In order for universal pre-kindergarten to succeed without the knock-on effect to other age demographics, state plans need to also include financial incentives to programs offering infant and toddler care, pathways for salary growth, and parity across education and adequate resources and funding.