The turning point came several years ago for Reed, who lives in Spokane, Washington, when she was offered transitional housing in an apartment building that happened to be co-located with a Head Start program. 

Reed, a single mom, enrolled her youngest child, an infant daughter named Evie, in Head Start.

The federal antipoverty program is best known for providing high-quality early care and education to young children from low-income families, but as Reed soon learned, what truly sets it apart is the slew of wraparound services that meet families where they are and help them build toward something better. 

Head Start provided Reed with essential goods like diapers, formula, clothing and food. Staff helped her navigate the public school system with her older son, who has autism, even though he wasn鈥檛 in the program. Head Start provided her daughter with free hearing and vision screenings and dental care. It empowered her to 鈥渇ind her voice鈥� by giving her a leadership position with the policy council, a majority-parent group involved in each Head Start program鈥檚 decision-making, a step which she said has made her a 鈥渂etter mom and 鈥� better community member.鈥� 

鈥淚 felt like they loved my children like they were their own and cared about all of our well-beings,鈥� said Reed, whose daughter is moving on to kindergarten later this month. 鈥淭hey saw us as a whole and tried to help wherever they could. And if they couldn’t, they would sit down and research what would help.鈥�

Some of the very services that proved to be transformational for Reed and her family, however, may now be at risk. 

In a proposed rule change on Aug. 6, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. invoked the name of his uncle, Sargent Shriver, who led Head Start’s creation in 1965, saying his department was “removing unnecessary bureaucracy” that would return the program to its roots. Others say the changes will weaken or eliminate most of the standards that have long positioned Head Start as the 鈥済old standard鈥� for early care and education licensing and quality in this country. “Nothing else compares,” said Shantel Meek, founder and executive director of the Children鈥檚 Equity Project at Arizona State University.

The Trump administration is proposing that the of Head Start Program Performance Standards be reduced to about a dozen pages, eliminating requirements for standards such as low adult-to-child ratios; services such as medical, dental and developmental screenings and individualized services for children with disabilities; and requiring programs to conduct all education in the English language. The , which will officially be published to the Federal Register tomorrow, outlines the drastic reduction in standards. If passed, these changes would allow Head Start programs to adhere only to state and local childcare licensing requirements, which typically fall of the quality and safety standards long embraced by Head Start.

鈥淚t basically takes the country from the ceiling to the floor,鈥� said Meek. 鈥淭he kids that Head Start serves will bear the brunt of the impact, but it will go beyond. States and the field in general see Head Start as a north star we鈥檙e trying to build to, and they鈥檙e trying to tear that down and gut the heart of the program.鈥�

In addition to removing many Head Start standards, this proposed rule would also change the cap on administrative overhead from 15% to 5% of a program鈥檚 total costs. Trump officials believe this, plus other cost-saving measures such as having fewer teachers on staff, serving more children in each classroom and spending less money on services such as home visiting and mental health supports, will reinvest up to $2.2 billion in the program, allowing Head Start to 鈥減reserve or expand鈥� services to an additional 236,000 children nationwide. Critics, however, believe that reducing the quality of care for the sake of adding slots is a dangerous game to be playing 鈥� especially when quality has been a hallmark of Head Start throughout its history. 

鈥淚t feels like the Trump administration is saying, 鈥楲et鈥檚 see who can do this for the cheapest.鈥� That鈥檚 not what I think anyone wants 鈥� or should want,鈥� said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. 鈥淚 see this rule as incredibly destructive. I see it as another attempt to dismantle the Head Start program.鈥�

Ryan鈥檚 colleague Lori Pittman, chief strategist at the WSA and a former Head Start parent, said the 5% cap would be a 鈥渞eally, really scary thing.鈥�

鈥淭o take away the foundation and the structures that build this house called Head Start,鈥� Pittman added, 鈥渨ill only destroy it, and we鈥檙e not going to let that happen.鈥�

The publication of the full proposal tomorrow will kick off a 60-day period of public comments, during which administration officials will receive and review feedback. The federal changes could also face legal challenges, many stakeholders told 社区黑料.

Katie Hamm, former deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development under President Joe Biden, said that the proposal would strip away the elements of Head Start that make it exceptional. 

鈥淲hat sets Head Start apart from other programs are its quality standards, comprehensive services, parental involvement in shaping the program, and a commitment to welcoming all children,鈥� Hamm said. 鈥淎ll of those things are undermined in the revision.鈥�

Trump administration officials see it differently. The proposed rule is about cutting red tape and 鈥渢rusting local leaders to make the decisions that are best for their local communities,鈥� said Alex Adams, who leads the Administration for Children and Families at HHS, during a call with reporters, adding that 鈥渙ne-size-fits-all mandates from Washington cannot fully account for the realities facing the 1,600 grantees.鈥� 

Later in the call, Adams referred to the proposed rule as a 鈥渞ight-sizing鈥� of Head Start and emphasized that the flexibility these changes are meant to provide is 鈥減ermission, not a mandate.鈥�

Yet leaders on the ground fear that if it鈥檚 not required, it won鈥檛 hold up in most programs. 

鈥淗ow quickly this affects families will vary by program, and that’s the problem,鈥� said Hamm. 鈥淚f the floor is gone, it comes down to whether each local decision-maker chooses to hold the line or start cutting corners. That’s happening against flat funding and rising costs, with pressure to serve more children. When a standard isn’t on paper, it becomes optional.鈥� 

Head Start, a federally funded early childhood development program that turned 60 last year, has come under fire repeatedly since the start of the second Trump administration a year-and-a-half-ago. 

The program serving nearly has long been a target of the right, most recently with the conservative playbook calling for its total elimination and a leaked appearing to cut funding for the program altogether. Though that ultimately didn鈥檛 pass, the administration turned to what Hamm called 鈥渢he death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach,鈥� repeatedly delaying funding and disrupting grants, closing roughly half of the program’s regional offices and eliminating a number of federal positions that supported Head Start.

The administration then unsuccessfully attempted to ban practices involving diversity, equity and inclusion and exclude scores of immigrant kids from the program, meaning preschoolers without legal status 鈥� and even some with鈥� . And it the federal policy protecting childcare programs 鈥� and other so-called sensitive locations 鈥� from immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, last year鈥檚 government shutdown also locked thousands of the nation鈥檚 most vulnerable kids out of Head Start programming. And more recently, the administration a Biden-era rule requiring higher wages and better benefits for Head Start teachers.

This week鈥檚 proposal to overhaul Head Start鈥檚 regulatory standards will only further contribute to the widespread uncertainty and confusion, various stakeholders told 社区黑料. And if the changes are confirmed, they will have enduring consequences for children, families and early educators. 

To middle and upper class Americans, the value of some of Head Start鈥檚 signature services may seem overstated, noted Nancy Baker, Head Start director for the Butler County Educational Service Center in southwest Ohio, which oversees 631 children in Early Head Start and Head Start across 16 sites in two counties. 

But the reality is that for many children in Head Start, the classroom setting may be their only opportunity for services such as oral care or a vision screening. 

鈥淭hese families are in poverty,鈥� Baker said. 鈥淭hey may not have transportation 鈥� If you are working in a low-paying job that may not offer sick leave, when the doctor鈥檚 visit comes due and you have to work that day, a parent will have to choose between, 鈥楧o I go to work, or do I take my child to the dentist and risk being fired?鈥欌�� 

鈥淓very day missed is money out of your pocket,鈥� Baker added. 鈥淚t becomes kind of a vicious cycle.鈥�

Head Start鈥檚 comprehensive services are provided, in part, out of a recognition that families who are eligible for the program face resource constraints and other barriers that may prevent them from meeting their children鈥檚 basic needs. The program aims to address those needs so families can pursue stability and children can be free to learn, develop and thrive. 

Plus, Baker added, physical impairments in a young child can be mistaken for behavioral issues. A child with imperfect vision may be perceived as inattentive and unable to focus. With a pair of glasses, their entire learning experience 鈥� and classroom identity 鈥� can change. Head Start also tests children for lead, Baker added. They鈥檝e discovered children in Butler County with high lead levels, which 鈥渃an mimic ADHD-type behaviors,鈥� she said, adding that 鈥渃ontinuous lead exposure can lead to some pretty serious cognitive delays.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a holistic program,鈥� Baker said of Head Start. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much, much more than childcare. It鈥檚 even much more than preschool. That鈥檚 where the standards start coming into play.鈥�

Baker is proud of the services her community鈥檚 Head Start programs provide to children and families, from nutrition to family engagement to mental health consultations. And she is 鈥渄isheartened鈥� by this new attempt to 鈥渨hittle down鈥� Head Start. 

鈥淪ome things they鈥檙e looking to reduce or eliminate are not massive, budget-saving things,鈥� Baker said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just good things to do for kids, particularly for children experiencing poverty.鈥�

Most of the standards the administration wants to eliminate, she added, are 鈥済ood, proven services that don鈥檛 break the bank. We鈥檙e not tied up in bureaucracy and red tape. These are health screenings. Why would you want to get rid of that?鈥�

Meek feels similarly about the 鈥渃utting red tape鈥� argument from the administration. 

鈥淏rushing kids鈥� teeth and providing inclusive services for kids with disabilities and 鈥� using ratios that are manageable so adults can engage in the learning process with kids 鈥� none of that is red tape,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hose are all essential things to make sure kids are safe, healthy, developing and learning.鈥�

Some parents have echoed these concerns. Reed, the mom in Spokane, worries about the elimination of Head Start鈥檚 low ratios, which allow adults to work with fewer children at a time, thereby giving each child more care and attention. 

If this proposal is confirmed later this year and Head Start programs do begin to align only with state and local childcare licensing requirements, many programs could see dramatic increases in ratios and group sizes. 

For example, Early Head Start, an extension of Head Start that serves infants and toddlers, allows one adult to care for up to four 2-year-olds at a given time. Only three states meet that same benchmark for 2-year-olds, according to an from the Children鈥檚 Equity Project. By contrast, in Mississippi, one adult is permitted to care for up to 12 2-year-olds, and in Texas and Florida, one adult can care for up to 11 toddlers. If a Head Start teacher begins caring for two or even three times as many children as before, they not only risk missing warning signs in some children 鈥� such as a behavioral issue or a physical need going unmet 鈥� but they are also much more likely to burn out and leave the position.

Meek, at the Children鈥檚 Equity Project, said this is one of the standards that she feels most strongly about. Another, she said, is the impact on dual language learners. 

Currently, Head Start standards include several provisions specific to children who are learning English alongside the language that is spoken at home. For example, if a majority of children in a program speak a primary language other than English, at least one staff member who regularly interacts with those children must also speak that language. 

That standard has been in place since 1975, when the original regulatory standards for Head Start were published, the Children鈥檚 Equity Project found. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not something new and crazy and ideological that was added,鈥� Meek said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been there since the beginning.鈥�

The changes for dual language learners 鈥� including the requirement that all programs educate children only in English 鈥� would affect an estimated of children in Head Start.

Adams at ACF told reporters in the press briefing that he hoped the 60-day public comment period would lead to 鈥渞obust engagement and thoughtful engagement with the community so we can get this rule right in broad strokes.鈥� 

But at least some families and providers involved in Head Start worry that the major decisions around this rule change have already been made. 

鈥淭his is like a slow-moving disaster,鈥� said Ryan, 鈥渁 slow erosion as dollars fade away, people fade away and ultimately quality fades away. And that鈥檚 the real danger in this.鈥�

WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump’s administration is planning a dramatic overhaul of  that would gut its quality standards, upending the hallmarks of the early education program for impoverished children, two people familiar with the deliberations said.

Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program. Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement.

Trump’s Republican administration would replace those regulations with around a dozen pages of rules, leaving most of the specifics up to state and local law, said the people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not yet public and because they feared reprisal.

In a post on X on Saturday night, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, said to expect a rule to be published this week. The administration 鈥渞emains committed to strengthening Head Start by preserving federal investment in the program while advancing reforms that expand access, increase local flexibility, reduce unnecessary administrative burden, and ensure services are delivered effectively to children and families in need,” department spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Monday in an email.

The draft rules would require more documentation from parents who are homeless or unemployed, the people familiar with the deliberations told The Associated Press. An early version of the proposal also would have barred parents who are in the United States illegally from enrolling their children, even if the children are U.S. citizens. It’s unclear whether those provisions will make the final draft.

Head Start, which operates in all 50 states, has long enjoyed robust bipartisan support. But some prominent conservatives in recent years have called for , saying the federal government should get out of the education business at every level. Deregulating the program would deliver a win for them and aligns with the Trump administration’s goals of scrapping rules it views as onerous or unnecessary.

Head Start is designed to target poverty, experts say

Head Start serves more than half a million low-income babies, toddlers and preschoolers nationwide. For families that qualify, it offers free preschool and screenings to identify developmental delays. It also offers supports for families.

If the changes take effect, they could make Head Start unrecognizable, said Khari Garvin, who ran the Office of Head Start under President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

鈥淲e’d have the carcass of Head Start,鈥� Garvin said. 鈥淵ou might have a program that’s called Head Start, but in substance it will not be.鈥�

The proposed rules were originally reported in The Bulwark.

Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, said the organization has yet to see the proposed rules. But he said the potential for a massive overhaul has left the organization on edge.

鈥淲e’re very anxious,鈥� Sheridan said. 鈥淲hen it does come out … we鈥檒l be ready to fight back where we need to fight back.鈥�

Still, he emphasized that Head Start centers might not be impacted for months, if the rules get on the books at all. Once the proposal is made public, federal law requires the administration to give at least a month for the public to weigh in on it. Then, once finalized, it may take more time for the rules to take effect. There’s also the potential for a lawsuit to halt implementation.

Current rules cover dental screenings and staff-to-student ratios

Head Start was created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson鈥檚 War on Poverty and targets the myriad challenges that low-income households face. It serves children and adults alike, coaching parents on reaching their goals, connecting them with services and even employing them.

Head Start operators, which include school districts and nonprofit organizations, are required to provide medical, dental and vision screenings for children and to monitor them for developmental delays. There’s also a curriculum framework and prohibitions on physical and emotional abuse of children.

Many of the features that make Head Start distinct from mainstream preschools are spelled out in 122 pages of performance standards. The Trump administration’s proposal would toss most of that rule book and replace it with a much shorter version that eliminates or loosens many requirements, the people familiar with the proposal said. But the proposal also calls for some new regulations, such as requiring all instruction in English.

Requirements around staff-to-student ratios and safety standards would be erased. Operators instead would be instructed to follow local and state laws, which are often far more permissive. And the new proposal also says nothing about suspensions and expulsions, the people said, making it easier for programs to  who are difficult to educate.

Head Start is under threat

Head Start, which has enjoyed robust bipartisan support for decades, has faced several threats since Trump . Project 2025,  authored by the official who is now Trump’s budget chief, called for the federal government to get rid of the program altogether. Last year, in a draft budget, the administration proposed exactly that, saying: 鈥淭he federal government should not be in the business of mandating curriculum, locations, and performance standards for any form of education.鈥� After public outcry, Health Secretary , whose department oversees Head Start, told Congress the program’s funding was safe.

Funding for the program was disrupted not long after Trump took office, leading some programs to have to shutter temporarily. It was once again halted after  in October that led some centers briefly to close their doors.

Earlier this year, Trump officials also erased a Biden-era rule that mandated raises and greater benefits for Head Start employees. When the rule went in to effect in 2024, , the majority of whom have bachelor’s degrees, earned less than $40,000 a year on average.

The story was originally published by The Associated Press. Ali Swenson contributed reporting.

Parents, early educators, childcare providers, labor leaders, business leaders, advocates and community organizations came together around a shared belief: Our youngest children deserved better than a fragmented system that asked families to shoulder impossible burdens while treating early childhood as an afterthought instead of the essential public infrastructure it has always been.

Together, they built , also known as the Children’s Health & Child Care Initiative for Alameda County. It鈥檚 a community-led, voter-approved half-cent sales tax dedicated to early care and education expected to generate $150 million annually. Measure C wasn’t created simply to fund more childcare. It was created to build the early childhood infrastructure that allows families to work, children to thrive, providers to succeed and communities to prosper.

In its first year of implementation, Measure C more than $135 million across Alameda County, reaching nearly 20,000 children, supporting more than 6,400 educators and caregivers, improving early learning facilities buildings and programming, helping childcare providers keep their doors open, connecting more families with the care they need, and building a stronger, more connected early childhood system.

Those investments matter because the need has always been profound. In Alameda County, which lies across the bay from San Francisco, who qualify for subsidized childcare are not receiving it. Nearly half of families live in what researchers call a licensed childcare desert, and two out of every three children are not fully prepared for kindergarten.

These aren’t individual failures. They are the predictable outcome of decades of underinvestment in one of the most important public systems we have.

Decades of have shown that a child’s earliest years shape lifelong health, educational success and economic opportunity. Yet historically, we have invested far less in those years than the evidence, and our families, have demanded.

I grew up between working-class New Hampshire and San Francisco’s Mission District, shaped by both the strength and the fragility of public systems. That’s the lens I’ve carried through nearly 30 years in public service, social services, economic development, federal regulatory work and now as CEO of First 5 Alameda County, the agency responsible for implementing Measure C. I’ve learned the difference between policies that make a splash and systems that actually change lives.

Funding matters. Implementation determines whether funding changes lives.

Public dollars become real opportunities for families only when communities have the capacity to put those investments to work. That means building partnerships, strong fiscal stewardship, workforce development, facilities, transparent accountability, modern data systems and public institutions capable of responding to what families actually need.

Because what families need is often more nuanced than the legislation, the art of interpretation for implementation is critical. In Alameda County, more than searching for childcare are looking for providers who speak a language other than English. 

More than one-quarter of working parents need care outside traditional business hours. Families raising children with disabilities continue to face significant barriers finding inclusive programs. These aren’t exceptions, they’re everyday realities that should shape how public systems are designed.

Responding effectively to those realities requires more than funding announcements or good intentions. It requires public institutions willing to partner with communities, listen to families, invest strategically and continually improve operations and program design based on lived experience.

This kind of stewardship rarely attracts headlines. It happens in community centers, church halls, classrooms, neighborhood meetings and around kitchen tables. It’s technical, collaborative and often invisible. Yet it’s the work that determines whether public investment succeeds or stalls.

Alameda County isn’t alone. Across the country, communities are reaching the same conclusion: Early childhood isn’t private family responsibility. It is essential public infrastructure.

That’s the same shift happening elsewhere. New Mexico has built one of the most ambitious early childhood systems in the country through sustained public investment. New York City has made universal childcare central to its economic future. San Francisco keeps expanding what it invests locally to close gaps in access. Different paths, same realization: Where a lack of national childcare policy and funding has left a hole, communities are stepping up to build the system themselves.

No single county can do that alone. But a system built well and built to be shared becomes something bigger than the place that built it. What we’re working toward isn’t just about helping the kids down the block. It’s an example to inform national policy and practice, to set a regulatory framework and funding to help the kids down the block 鈥� and the kids growing up on the Eastern Seaboard, too.

Measure C began as a promise to the children in our own neighborhoods. The question now isn’t whether that kind of promise can work, Alameda County is proof that it does. It’s how we can use local examples to demonstrate we can achieve national promise to all families and children, making the local implementation that much easier to achieve lasting results for kids and families.

For as long as anyone remembers, no childcare center on Kaua驶i has had a single opening for an infant or toddler. Not one.

On this tropical island lush with vegetation, the childcare landscape is desolate. Kaua驶i is the only major Hawaiian island that has gone without center-based infant and toddler care for most of the past 15 years if not more 鈥� the data just doesn鈥檛 go back any further. 

There are spots on the island鈥檚 military base, but those are reserved for military families. There have historically been about 22 licensed home-based childcare centers that could also take infants and toddlers, but they鈥檙e limited to only two children under 18 months; most choose to only have one infant or none at all. That amounts to about 10 to 14 seats for the 700 babies who are born on the island every year. And hiring a nanny on Kaua鈥檌 is a prohibitive cost for many: The going rate is between $35 and $40 an hour. 

On the mainland, if parents are in a childcare desert, they often get around it by driving to the next nearest town or moving neighborhoods to be near family. On Kaua驶i, there鈥檚 nowhere to go without leaving the tiny island behind. So parents have made it work because they had to. Families living intergenerationally relied on each other to help with the care. Grandmas and aunties stepped in to help. Moms took their kids to work with them or they found a job that they could do from home to give them more flexibility. In many cases, moms left the labor force altogether. 

This has gone on so long that it has become an accepted way of life. 

Across Hawai鈥檌, of parents report leaving their jobs due to childcare challenges, according to a 2025 survey by the Chamber of Commerce Hawai鈥檌. On Kaua驶i, 鈥渋t is a very stressful situation, and in most cases it’s going to be the mother that has to to quit her job and stay at home and it puts on an additional burden to the family financially,鈥� said Carol Wear, the executive director of PATCH, Hawai鈥檌鈥檚 childcare resource and referral agency.

The situation came to a head during the pandemic, which decimated the scant childcare options on Kaua鈥檌. Five home-based childcare centers had shuttered by 2023. Families鈥� finances got tighter after the island鈥檚 top industry, tourism, much of 2020. An already unwieldy housing affordability problem . Fewer families could afford to have one parent home not working to care for their child. 

Faced with a need that was growing more desperate, the island鈥檚 first known infant and toddler spots opened up by 2024. The Kaua驶i Montessori Project, a preschool in L墨hu驶e, the county seat, opened 12 infant and toddler spots thanks to some grant funding that came through during the pandemic. Then an Early Head Start center serving the lowest-income children 鈥� 鈥� opened in 2025 with eight infant and toddler spots. Coming soon is a third center, a renovated grocery store space, that the county decided to turn solely into an infant-toddler center in response to the need. It will open with 32 seats for kids ages 6 weeks to 3 years old early next year. 

That brings the count of infant-toddler spots to about 30 currently 鈥� still only enough for about 4 percent of the island鈥檚 infants. For the Head Start center, the kids on that waitlist alone could fill three more centers, said Novelyn Hinazumi, the director of Kaua驶i programs at Child & Family Service, the nonprofit that operates Head Start programs on the island. 

鈥淭his shortage has placed enormous strain on families, contributed to workforce loss and increased community awareness of the need for systemic change,鈥� said Natasha Perry, the county鈥檚 early childhood coordinator. 

For moms, it has put into question whether their families can continue to live on Kaua驶i at all. 

Aakara Wiegand, a single mom of a 2-year-old who has lived in Hawai鈥檌 for 15 years, has to take her daughter with her to work at a rental car company. With her other business running wellness retreats, she can only do about half as many events because she can barely manage it with her toddler. 

The nanny rates are unaffordable, Wiegand said. And even finding a nanny at the last minute is difficult. She had one nanny lined up for an upcoming colonoscopy, but the nanny had to travel, so Wiegand was forced to cancel her appointment. 

It has put severe strain on her life, she said: 鈥淚 have basically stopped doing things.鈥� 

Even more complicated is the fact that her toddler is receiving early intervention services for her speech and social emotional development. The very few options on the island don鈥檛 often cater to children who need additional support, Wiegand said. Last year, she was able to get her daughter a spot at a daycare, but she only lasted there four days. 鈥淪he just couldn’t emotionally fit in that group, but it was the only option available. So that was frustrating at that time,鈥� Wiegand said.

With no family or support on the island, Wiegand is starting to research a move to North Carolina in the next year. Becoming a parent has changed her experience on Kaua鈥檌.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just not a very sustainable environment anymore,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely taken a toll on me.鈥�

Part of how Kaua驶i found itself with such a severe infant and toddler care shortage is a familiar story. In Kaua驶i, like much of the country, infant and toddler spots because no one makes money from them. Per Hawai鈥檌鈥檚 licensing rules, there needs to be one teacher for every four infants in each infant-toddler classroom, which makes staffing expensive. 

But on this island, there鈥檚 also a space problem. 

Hawai鈥檌鈥檚 licensing guidelines require of play or instructional space per child as well as 75 square feet of outdoor space per child, not unlike what most other states require. In most places that鈥檚 not a big constraint, but on an island 33 miles wide with a massive housing shortage, real estate is tight. 

Mandie Gibson, the principal of the Koloa Early School, a preschool on the south part of the island about 10 miles west of L墨hu驶e, said she鈥檚 been trying to add an additional building to run an infant-toddler center for seven or eight years, but on the island, the process is lengthy. Even if it does come together soon, which she expects it may, construction is projected to take six to 10 months. Adjusted for Kaua驶i time 鈥� everything takes longer here, she said 鈥� it鈥檒l likely be closer to a year and a half.

Gibson first sought to add infant and toddler spots as a workforce retention tool for her own staff. But the addition didn鈥檛 come together in time; she lost one full-time teacher last year when his wife had a baby and he had to move into a part-time position elsewhere. 

She鈥檚 seen families on both ends of the spectrum: those with the means to hire nannies to care for their younger children and those who had to move away to find care. 

鈥淗ere, it’s very transient. It’s three to five years for a lot of people. The island spits you up or embraces you,鈥� Gibson said. 

Kaua驶i鈥檚 retention problem also extends to its teachers. If the island wants to continue to add more infant-toddler centers, it鈥檚 going to have to figure out how to recruit and train staff. Under Hawai鈥檌 regulations, infant and toddler teachers depending on their education level need one to two years of experience with that age group to qualify. How do you get experience on an island that has never really had spots to begin with?

Toni Fujimoto, the early childhood education program coordinator at Kaua驶i Community College, has been working on that side of the problem for years, including helping shape recommendations to the state to modernize the childcare licensing requirement. One of her goals is to set up apprenticeship programs for her students in partnership with the island鈥檚 centers. Some students can currently get experience at home-based centers or at centers like Gibson鈥檚, which takes kids as young as 2 and technically counts as infant-toddler experience. But the options are severely limited. 

And it鈥檚 already hard to recruit students to early childhood because the positions are among the lowest paid jobs in the country; some students just choose to work in tourism or other industries instead of pursuing the education needed to work in childcare. Last semester, Fujimoto had only four graduates from the associate鈥檚 degree program. She is now recruiting as early as middle school, sussing out any students who may have interest. 

One of Fujimoto鈥檚 recent graduates, Alysha Palacio, grew up on Kaua驶i with her grandparents caring for her. But she did not have that option when she became pregnant her senior year in high school in 2021. Her fiance is a plumber and couldn鈥檛 bring their daughter with him to work. Her mother is a store manager who works from sun up to sundown with no days off. Her father is a waiter who often works double shifts. Her grandparents passed away. Already, Palacio鈥檚 sister-in-law had to leave the island because of lack of childcare.

Palacio chose to study early childhood education 鈥� hoping, at first, that it would also prepare her for being a mom 鈥� and kept her daughter with her while she did classes on Zoom or went to campus. It took her four years to complete her associate degree. She graduated in May hoping to go work at a preschool but is still waiting to hear back about a job.

Out in the community, she sees the struggle reflected in other moms. At a restaurant recently, she noticed her server鈥檚 young children sitting alone at a back table. 

鈥淎nother waitress comes in and she has her kids, and she puts her kids on this back table, and it clicked in my head that they’re bringing their kids here because they have nobody else to watch them, so their kids are literally going to work with them,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hen I see that in public I feel really bad.鈥�

At Kaua驶i Montessori, director Marci Whitman has had to weigh whose pocketbook she would hurt more. She recently lost two teachers because they couldn鈥檛 afford housing on the island; another two nearly became homeless. But to pay them, she had to raise an already high tuition. 

She chose the teachers, who are paid between $20 and $27 an hour. 

Over the past several years, Kaua驶i鈥檚 efforts to add more infant spots have butted up against a growing affordability crisis that is among the most severe in the nation. As much as some parents may want to put their youngest in childcare, few can actually afford it.

Tuition for infant spots at Kaua鈥檌 Montessori is $2,400 a month. On an island where the median household income is about $83,000, that price would swallow about a third of it. So though Whitman may have 12 spots for infants, only three are taken due to the high cost.

Statewide, the average cost of full-time, center-based infant care in Hawai鈥檌 is per year, according to an analysis by Child Care Aware. That鈥檚 second only to Massachusetts among the 47 states for which there is data. 

Businesses on Kaua驶i are as they can. Tamara Lawrence, a mom of three young kids, opened a play space in 2023 to try to offer some respite for stay-at-home parents or those working from home with their kids. But the business struggled to make a profit 鈥� people said the play space was too expensive. 

They recently moved into a new space on the main street in L墨hu驶e and established a nonprofit arm that will help them take in some grant funding to lower costs. After their grand opening next month, they鈥檒l start marketing the Play Hale鈥檚 drop-in childcare option: two hours a day for $25. 

鈥淢y goal is to eventually make it very minimal payment or no payment at all 鈥� that’s what our community wants and needs,鈥� Lawrence said. 

The community also needs something really basic: childcare . Over and over again, the question of came up in more than a dozen conversations The 19th had with parents, providers and childcare experts on Kaua驶i. In a place where, for decades, people have relied on their family and each other for care, growing to trust more formal childcare options is a barrier in itself (for those who have the luxury of choice). Hawai鈥檌 also seriously in its reporting of incidents of serious injuries or abuse at childcare centers. Though the state is required by federal law to report such cases annually, regardless of whether there are any incidents at all, it hasn鈥檛 . 

Lawrence said that, culturally, trust was a big issue, which is why she always advises her staff to create a connection with every patron that comes through their doors. Even remembering someone鈥檚 name can make someone more likely to return.

Nora Gregg, a stay-at-home mom of a teenage daughter and two boys under the age of 2 said the philosophy among most of the moms she knows on the island is that mom should be home with their baby. Some moms put their kids in nature pods, unlicensed childcare options where kids learn outside, or they gather together to share the caregiving. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 actually how women have mothered for many centuries 鈥� that鈥檚 the village,鈥� she said.

鈥淧arents here, they don鈥檛 just give your kids to strangers,鈥� said Gregg, who has lived in Kaua鈥檌 for three years. 鈥淲hen I think back to how I put my daughter on the East Coast in daycare that I didn’t know the person, isn’t that weird?鈥� 

On Kaua驶i and elsewhere in the United States, a country that has now been in , so much of the experience continues to be shaped by what little choice parents even have in the matter. 

Connie, a single mom of a 4-month-old who has lived on Kaua驶i for five years, doesn鈥檛 trust anyone to care for her baby. So she brings her daughter along as she cleans Airbnb鈥檚 across the island. Cleaning is a lucrative job for women here; on any given year, 1.4 million tourists visit an island of 74,000 locals. She can鈥檛 afford to lose the job, which she needs to keep her health insurance. But Connie鈥檚 boss doesn鈥檛 know she brings her daughter to work. The 19th is only using her first name to protect her identity. 

鈥淚鈥檇 be lying if I said it was a walk in the park,鈥� Connie said. 鈥淚 could be just about done with the job, and she gets really really upset or fussy, and sometimes there’s nothing I can do to calm her down until we can get in the car and she falls asleep in her car seat. Or I could be just about done with my job, and my boss is like, 鈥極h, hey, can you go here? Can you go there? Can you do all these extra things?鈥� 鈥�

She doesn鈥檛 feel like she has options. She can鈥檛 afford a nanny. But as her daughter gets older, she is going to have to seriously consider asking her family to move to the island with her to help, she said. 

Until then, she sneaks her daughter鈥檚 bouncer and toys with her to work hoping her boss won鈥檛 find out.

鈥淚 have to take the risk every day.鈥�

was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of . .

Amid an often bleak landscape, Kentucky was recently able to pass with bipartisan support, making significant investments in childcare by improving subsidy reimbursement rates, codifying free childcare for childcare providers, requiring training to better support children with special needs and easing regulations that stand in providers’ way.

The state鈥檚 effort started in 2024 with the launch of the Kentucky Collaborative on Child Care. The project 鈥� a partnership between Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, the Kentucky Chamber Foundation and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Center for Policy and Research 鈥� convened 40 childcare advocates and leaders from across Kentucky to meet regularly in 2024 and 2025 to come up with policy recommendations for the legislature to ensure the state鈥檚 families have access to high-quality childcare.听

Convergence, a national nonprofit that specializes in bringing people together with differing backgrounds and opinions, facilitated the collaborative, which was able to come to consensus on a number of polarizing issues. The nonprofit is 鈥渄esigned for issues where progress has stalled,鈥� noted Mariah Levison, CEO of Convergence. 

That was the case in Kentucky. It was among the many states that came to realize how many challenges plague the sector when the COVID-19 pandemic threw everything into disarray. There was 鈥渁 surge in advocacy around childcare,鈥� particularly in 2022, said Charles Aull, executive director of the Center for Policy and Research at the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. But while there was a lot of energy and activity around the issue, there wasn鈥檛 a shared set of goals. 鈥淭here was an identified problem, we had a whole bunch of people who cared about the problem, but there wasn鈥檛 a whole lot of cohesion among those folks,鈥� Aull said. He added that state lawmakers also understood there was a problem but, because they aren鈥檛 subject matter experts, told the advocates that they weren鈥檛 sure what exactly should be done to solve it. Some had 鈥渋ssue fatigue,鈥� said Mandy Marler, a childcare lobbyist at Baldwin Consulting who participated in the collaborative. 

The group debated a number of childcare solutions over the course of 18 months. Marler came in prepared to fight tooth and nail against any efforts to deregulate childcare, noting that the state already has some of the child-to-staff ratio requirements in the country. 

鈥淚 had been in so many rooms and so many situations where it was, 鈥榃e鈥檒l just cut regulations and it won鈥檛 be a problem or unaffordable anymore,鈥� 鈥� she said. But she found that 鈥渘o one was trying to come for our ratios.鈥� Instead, the conversation was about unwinding the red tape that really did get in providers鈥� way without changing health and safety standards for children, such as allowing microcenters that serve less than 24 children to skip some requirements intended for larger centers like having a playground or cooking meals in-house.

Meanwhile, Gus LaFontaine, another member of the group and co-founder of LaFontaine Early Learning Center 鈥� a childcare program in Richmond, Kentucky 鈥� was nervous about proposals that would have the government mandate specific training for his staff, rather than leaving the choice to owners like him. But he was eventually able to get on board with earmarking a portion of the 15-hour annual training requirement for childcare providers for helping staff better support children with disabilities. The group鈥檚 process required him to 鈥渃hoose wisely the hills you want to die on,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 came full circle on that topic.鈥� 

The strongest disagreement the group had was over bonuses for childcare workers, Levison said. Members couldn鈥檛 come to a compromise on the issue, so it was left out of its recommendations. Instead, they prioritized pushing the state to cover the entire cost of childcare for childcare workers 鈥� something Kentucky started doing in 2022 and has since caught on in other states but had never been codified by legislation. 

鈥淥ne of the things the group agreed on is it鈥檚 so important it should be in statute,鈥� Aull said. 鈥淚t should be permanent and should be funded.鈥� And while such a program doesn鈥檛 offer childcare staff more take-home pay, it saves them a lot of money on the cost of their own children鈥檚 care. 鈥淲e actually did accomplish some wage supplementation without that name on it,鈥� LaFontaine said. 

In the end, the group was able to develop everyone could agree to. That included improving the state鈥檚 existing childcare subsidy program, streamlining burdensome regulations, improving care quality, and addressing the low pay and high turnover among childcare staff. But the collaborative鈥檚 members were clear that the report they eventually produced wasn鈥檛 the end of the process, but rather the beginning. They spent a lot of time meeting with state lawmakers and sharing the results of their work. When they gave the report to lawmakers, the process and wide array of advocates brought a lot of people on board. Marler, who has worked as a lobbyist on childcare for nearly a decade, said of the report, 鈥淚 have never in all my years working on any policy had that kind of endorsement.鈥�

The group鈥檚 recommendations deeply informed , which became law in April. The legislation free childcare for providers, changed state subsidy payments to reflect the true cost of care, required training for caring for children with disabilities and modified the state鈥檚 quality rating system to better take outcomes into account. It also eased the paperwork required for employers to participate in the state鈥檚 Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership, which pools state, employer and employee money to cover the cost of care, and launched a pilot program to create one-room microcenters caring for up to 24 children. 

That it was numbered six is significant, because the House saves its priorities for bills one through ten every year, Aull noted. 鈥淓ven two years ago, if we had brought up the possibility of a House majority making childcare one of its top ten priority bills, you would have been laughed out of the room,鈥� he said. The bill passed 鈥渨ith overwhelming bipartisan support,鈥� Levison noted. 

The group鈥檚 work also informed , which directs the state鈥檚 auditor of public accounts to study statutes, regulations and policies that relate to opening and operating childcare centers with an eye toward streamlining them to make it easier on providers. It passed the legislature unanimously.

Kentucky has made significant progress through the passage of House Bill 6 and HJR50, but moving the legislative packages forward wasn鈥檛 all smooth sailing. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear allowed HB6 to go into law . He also vetoed HJR50, that the auditor of public accounts lacked 鈥渢he programmatic and policy expertise鈥� to carry out the study and that it would require spending taxpayer dollars to hire an outside auditing service, but the legislature overrode his veto, and Aull noted that it did so with bipartisan support. 

The legislature, for its part, blocked an effort that could have had a much larger impact on increasing parents鈥� access to affordable childcare. Last June, Beshear a 鈥淧re-K for All鈥� initiative and convened an advisory committee for the issue. But the legislature , refusing to include funding for it in the state budget, with Republican members citing worries about the cost of such a program and what effects it would have on private childcare providers. Instead, this May Beshear created pilot pre-K programs in two counties as a smaller-scale alternative.

The advocates who pushed for the reforms now enshrined in law aren鈥檛 done, however. 鈥淲e never envisioned this as the final word,鈥� Aull said. Next, the group plans to make sure that the legislation is implemented well. 鈥淎nytime you鈥檙e able to accomplish policy change, [there is an] importance of continued cultivation of that legislation,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou need to continue to work on its implementation phase 鈥� it takes a long time.鈥�

With costs up, many are facing financial hardship at a level even greater than what was seen at the onset of the pandemic. That economic strain is taking a toll on the emotional well-being of children and their caregivers.

That鈥檚 according to that have asked families how they are faring. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 really clear that it鈥檚 a really difficult time to be a parent in America right now,鈥� said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. 鈥淚 feel like we鈥檙e being squeezed in so many different ways.鈥�

The administration鈥檚 approach to tariffs has forced up the price of many basic goods and services, she noted. The conflict in Iran has caused oil prices to spike. And federal legislation 鈥� namely H.R. 1, known as the 鈥淥ne Big Beautiful Bill鈥� 鈥� has led to the beginning of a pullback of social safety net programs such as SNAP and Medicaid.听

As a result, Americans are dealing with soaring gas prices, increased grocery costs, higher utility bills, and untenable healthcare premiums that have prompted some to 鈥渞oll the dice鈥� and go uninsured, Rodrigues explained. On top of all of those ballooning expenses, parents must also weather the costs of childcare; extracurricular activities for the kids; and food, clothing and medical care for their dependents. 

鈥淎ll of these things compound and create this context of misery that we鈥檙e all feeling pretty acutely this summer,鈥� said Rodrigues, whose organization recently released the results of a of parents of more than 1,500 K-12 public school students. 

Among parents of children in kindergarten through fifth grade, NPU found that about two-thirds of respondents expressed that they think the economic conditions in the country are getting worse, with an overwhelming majority saying that the costs of housing, basic goods, healthcare, childcare and extracurricular activities were each 鈥渟omewhat鈥� or a 鈥渧ery big鈥� problem right now. Three in four parents of kids in grades K-5 said inflation had changed their summer plans. Trips have been canceled or dialed back. Summer activities, such as camp, have had to be reconsidered. 

Magda Zalewska, a mother of three children under age 6 in Romeoville, Illinois, is one of the parents feeling immense financial pressure this year. She wants to sign up her two older children 鈥� ages 4 and 5 鈥� for soccer, but it鈥檚 not something she can afford. Trips to the grocery store and fueling up her car are crushing her right now, she said. She has no money in a savings account in case of emergency; she鈥檚 always hoping her air conditioner doesn鈥檛 go out, that her car keeps running. 

鈥淚鈥檓 already working from sun up to sun down,鈥� said Zalewska, who works as an early intervention therapist. 鈥淚鈥檓 already stretched so thin, and it’s frustrating because you want to give your kids this life but you can鈥檛 keep up with expenses.鈥�

Her compensation, even as it has gone up, never seems to keep pace with inflation, she added.

鈥淓verything is going up in price,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 keep climbing the ladder, climbing the ladder, [but] I鈥檓 always at this paycheck-to-paycheck scenario, no matter how far I advance in my career.鈥�

Zalewska has benefited from financial assistance over the years, from WIC, SNAP and Medicaid, but she said she lost Medicaid coverage recently and has been told she鈥檚 going to lose her SNAP benefits as well. Already, she said, she can鈥檛 remember the last time she ate fresh fruit. When SNAP is gone, she said, 鈥淚t won鈥檛 be produce I鈥檓 not eating, it鈥檚 going to be meals I鈥檓 skipping.鈥� (She focuses on making sure her three children have enough to eat before she feeds herself.)

鈥淗ow am I supposed to pour into their cups when my cup is not filling?鈥� she asked. 鈥淭he support is being taken from our fingertips. It鈥檚 just all gone.鈥�

Zalewska takes some comfort in the knowledge that she鈥檚 not alone. She notices a 鈥渦niform struggle鈥� in the families she works with. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not financial, it鈥檚 overall stress and mental well-being. Most families are burnt out.鈥�

Her point is reflected in data from Stanford鈥檚 RAPID Survey Project, which has been gathering information monthly from parents and childcare providers for over six years. Indeed, 44% of families with infants and toddlers reported challenges paying for basics such as food and housing in 2025, according to a by the nonprofit Zero to Three, which compiled RAPID data from families with children under age 3. That represents the highest rate in the prior five years of survey data, including in 2020 when 42% of families reported the same difficulties.

By the end of 2025, families鈥� financial hardship seemed to peak, said Samantha Melvin, director of policy research at Zero to Three and author of the report. 

鈥淭heir struggles really grew throughout the course of 2025,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 say discretely that one thing changed, but there is this kind of cascading, consistent onslaught of uncertainty and distress.鈥� 

Families specifically mentioned the heavy burdens of affording food, housing and utilities, she said. Economic pressure often affected emotional and mental well-being, with parents reporting increases in anxiety, depression, stress and loneliness over the course of the year. 

Those stressors affect not just adults, but entire families, Melvin noted. 

鈥淚f you鈥檙e afraid of paying for rent, putting food on the table, it may impact how you鈥檙e interacting with your baby or [how] your baby is perceiving that stress,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t can have long-term consequences and harm for babies to be living in this constant place of uncertainty and deprivation, unstable and inconsistent relationships.鈥�

Often, people will respond to moments of hardship by noting that children are resilient. And they are, Melvin agreed. 

鈥淔amilies and the relationships are what creates that resilience,鈥� she clarified. 鈥淏abies are resilient because of their parents.鈥�

So when parents are taking on extra jobs to cover expenses, waiting in line at a Medicaid or SNAP office to access benefits they are eligible for, or visiting food banks to make sure their kids can eat dinner, that inherently pulls them away from quality time with their children. 鈥淗ow do relationships get formed?鈥� Melvin asked. 鈥淚t鈥檚 with that time.鈥�

This resonates for Zalewska. She鈥檚 been taking on more and more work to help her family鈥檚 finances. She estimates that she works about 65 hours a week. 

鈥淚 barely see my kids,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 missing all their milestones.鈥�

Her current circumstances have left her in 鈥渇ight or flight mode,鈥� she said. Her nervous system is 鈥渉aywire.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 exhausted,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 feel it in the bones of my body.鈥�

Clara Busse, a mom in Philadelphia with an infant and a 3-year-old, doesn鈥檛 worry so much about meeting her basic needs, but she and her husband have to make some sacrifices to afford the annual cost of their childcare, which is around $35,000 for her two children, she said. 

鈥淓very friend I have with young children is facing the same challenges,鈥� Busse said. 鈥淲e need policies that make sense for young families. It鈥檚 really basic stuff. People are really frustrated.鈥�

These issues are not likely to improve in the near term, with major cuts to SNAP and Medicaid looming in early 2027. Rodrigues and Melvin both emphasized the need for policies that support families, rather than ones that continue to take programs away and make life with young children less affordable.听

鈥淔amilies are having such a hard time,鈥� Melvin said. 鈥淭hey shouldn鈥檛 have to be working so hard, but the way they keep showing up for their babies 鈥� we need our policymakers and elected officials to be showing up for them.鈥�

That鈥檚 why our newsroom recently launched a new on Instagram () spotlighting a handful of important articles, case studies, data analyses and solutions snapshots that might have gotten lost in the noise. (You can also get these kind of daily highlights delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our national newsletter.)听

From the new demands facing college students in this era of artificial intelligence to a leadership transition at America鈥檚 largest union, here are five stories you might have missed this week: 

1. Elementary Principals Are Getting a Crash Course in How Young Kids Learn Best

Young children need different conditions than older students to thrive. Some school leaders are adapting their practices to reflect that reality.

2. Princess Moss Elected NEA President With Votes From 50% of Assembly Members

The former music teacher, who previously served as the union’s vice president, narrowly avoided a run-off in July 5 election.

3. What Today鈥檚 College Students Need That Previous Generations Didn鈥檛

College degrees don鈥檛 guarantee good jobs anymore, so students must build resumes and AI skills in high school and college, experts say.

4. A Restored Detroit Rail Station Looks to the Future, Offering Training for Teens

Michigan Central Station, long a symbol of decline and decay, is now an innovation hub with workshops and cutting edge equipment for youth.

5. Q&A 鈥� 鈥楻ehumaning鈥� Education: Banning Screens Is Only Part of the Solution

鈥榃e don’t have to remove all tech,鈥� author Stephanie Malia Krauss says. 鈥榃e need to remove toxic tech鈥� and bring back play and adequate sleep.

Imagine operates as an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, giving staff the unique opportunity to become co-owners of the organization and participate in company decision-making. In a profession often marked by , minimal benefits and , the model stands out: Imagine is the only childcare program in the country that is 100% employee-owned through an ESOP, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership, a nonprofit organization supporting the ESOP community.

At first, when she became an employee owner, Zamorano thought, 鈥渨hatever, I don鈥檛 own anything.鈥� But once she participated in the company鈥檚 ESOP education programs to learn more about the benefit, she said, 鈥淚 started to figure it out, and it feels great 鈥� like you鈥檙e the CEO of the place you鈥檙e at.鈥�

Could this business model be part of the solution for some of the sector鈥檚 longstanding challenges that make it tough to retain staff? And as New York City explores pathways to recruit and retain the staff needed to expand childcare access with its , could Imagine鈥檚 approach offer inspiration?

Breaking down the ESOP model

An ESOP is a retirement plan that allows employees to build ownership in the company through shares granted over time. The longer an employee stays at the company, and the better the company does financially, the more workers earn. The value of the ESOP is realized when an employee leaves, retires or if the company is sold. 

鈥淚t feels nice to own something, especially nowadays when you can’t own anything,鈥� said Zamorano, adding that the ESOP is a critical tool for her future, particularly because she believes 鈥渟ocial security is not going to exist鈥� by the time she retires.

According to Laura Tulchin, Imagine鈥檚 chief executive officer, the nearly 200 educators at the company get a salary that ranges from $37,000 to $90,000 depending on seniority and tenure and have ESOP accounts with balances that range from $1,484 to $167,000.

The center, which has operated since 2002, became partially employee-owned in 2018 and it transitioned to 100% employee ownership in 2026. Because Imagine is fully employee-owned, any gains go directly to employees instead of to outside shareholders.听

The ESOP model isn鈥檛 new: The . But it鈥檚 gained steam in recent years: Well-known companies like and are both ESOPs.

As of 2023, there were in the United States, with 15.1 million participating employees, according to the NCEO.

There鈥檚 evidence that the ESOP model has plenty of workforce benefits. According to research from the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University, companies that adopt an employee ownership model have when compared to non-employee-owned companies. More from the institute suggests that ESOP workers enjoy higher work autonomy, are more satisfied and feel less futility with their participation in workplace decision-making than non-ESOP workers.

That appears to be true at Imagine. 鈥淲hatever your position is here,鈥� said Tijuana Jackson, a lead teacher, 鈥渂ecause we鈥檙e an employee-owned company, you also have a voice in the direction of the company. That鈥檚 what I love.鈥� 

鈥淲hat I appreciate about Imagine is they trust my insight 鈥� I help with the school aesthetics, I helped develop the curriculum for the week of the young child,鈥� Jackson said, noting that lead teachers are also given a credit card to make direct decisions on classroom supply purchases.

Jackson鈥檚 experience is what Imagine leadership was going for when they transitioned to the model. 

鈥淥ur hope is that we have a competitive advantage from a business sense, by centering our employees and being a more resilient, stable childcare company in an industry that is unstable,鈥� said Tulchin.

To be a more stable business, Imagine hasn鈥檛 just worked to improve employee retention, but it has established a unique structure, which Tulchin describes as 鈥渕ultisite, not tiny and not a huge chain.鈥澛�

And that makes a difference when it comes to the program鈥檚 ability to leverage the ESOP model. The childcare sector includes a mix of for-profit and non-profit models, with center- and home-based programs that range from small operations to large organizations. 

Imagine鈥檚 size puts it in a unique spot, Tulchin said. 鈥淭he culture is still the mom-and-pop personal feel with the benefits that come from a larger company, where we have a recruitment manager and finance person.鈥�

Can this shared ownership model help attract and retain childcare workers?

As an ESOP, Imagine is in a better position than most to meet the demands of Mayor Zohran Mamdani鈥檚 initiative to increase access to childcare in New York City.

At the beginning of the year, the state and city of New York jointly announced the . The program is planned to roll out in phases with opening in the , 12,000 seats expected to be available in the fall of 2027, and by 2029, when the program is fully built out, advocates estimate that nearly 55,000 children will participate.

To create the spots the program promises, Lauren Melodia, director of fiscal and economic policy at the Center for NYC Affairs and one of the leading voices on the structural economics of child care in New York, said the city needs to address a core issue: retention challenges. 

Melodia, whose area of focus is explained that childcare programs face significant staffing challenges and are often 鈥渇orced into a situation where they’re hiring temps, early career people, training people up, hoping that they’ll stay with them long-term, then they move on to higher wages in the public sector.鈥� This creates a vicious cycle, she added. Centers invest in training staff only to lose them to better-paying K-12 positions.

Leaders at Imagine are working to disrupt this cycle. According to Imagine鈥檚 annual employee survey, 83% of staff report being satisfied with their jobs, and 81% of staff say they see themselves working at Imagine in two years. Despite employees鈥� high satisfaction rate, the business still competes with the public school system. 

Imagine gets its revenue from multiple sources, including a mix of private tuition, publicly funded child care subsidies and employer-sponsored child care agreements with government and university institutions. In a time of federal and state budget cuts and rising costs for families, childcare centers like Imagine are at the mercy of legislators and the economy, while public schools have less risk.

Even as an employee-owned childcare center with a diverse revenue model, Imagine isn鈥檛 immune to the challenges of running a childcare business.

The economics of childcare may prove challenging for ESOPs

The retention power of employee ownership lies in its promise of something wages alone don鈥檛 offer: wealth-building. 

鈥淚t lifts you up to know that you own something and you want to make sure that it grows bigger and bigger,鈥� said Zamorano.

Owning a share of a profitable business can greatly increase a worker鈥檚 wealth and financial security, but owning a share of a struggling business that doesn鈥檛 have a reliable cash flow cannot. 

鈥淭he one factor that all successful employee-owned businesses have from their outset is that they are starting from a place of profitability,鈥� said Tim Garbinsky, head of communications at NCEO. 

For Imagine to make good on the growth of employee ESOP account balances, the company has to remain profitable enough to have cash on hand to reinvest after covering its financial obligations. 

For many childcare centers, profitability remains a challenge. Melodia recognizes the business realities that could limit the expansion of childcare access. 

鈥淪mall business owners are always facing risk,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ny childcare center is going to have a hard time guaranteeing job quality and job security if they鈥檙e not able to charge what it actually costs to run these programs, which none of them are able to.鈥�

New York City leaders are looking at ways to enable providers who contract with them to charge what it costs, said Emmy Liss, the executive director in the Mayor鈥檚 Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education. 鈥淲e have to take care of the people who provide this essential service.鈥� 

Liss acknowledges that 鈥渇olks who work in childcare programs face challenges when it comes to wages and benefits,鈥� and that across the industry, teachers don鈥檛 make enough to 鈥渓ive and thrive,鈥� and providers don鈥檛 have the resources to change the equation. It鈥檚 a problem that needs to be solved if care is going to be expanded across the city, and as more states like New York and New Mexico seek to provide residents with universal childcare. 

In a field rife with workforce challenges, notably low compensation and poor benefits, the ESOP model offers providers an approach to building their wealth over time. But the model鈥檚 promise as a solution to the sector’s longstanding retention challenges hinges on reliable revenue 鈥� and for most childcare programs, that requires systemic change.

For Tulchin, the economic challenges are hard to ignore. 鈥淚t’s still a very low-paid industry,鈥� she said, and while the goal of shared ownership is to do right by employees, the math is difficult when workers are 鈥渓iving paycheck to paycheck, and the value that you’re talking about is 40 years down the road.鈥�

The first step to solving a reading delay is knowing it exists.

Decades of research have found that all children learn to read by developing the same core skills. This applies to children with dyslexia, English language learners and those reading well beyond grade level. Per the science of reading, some kids just need more targeted and explicit instruction 鈥� more time building whichever specific reading skill (and there are several) isn鈥檛 growing as fast.

But to do that, teachers need to figure out which skill is lacking. It takes a particular kind of training and the right tools 鈥� and until recently, many Connecticut schools lacked both.

That started to change with the 2023 Right to Read law, which compels districts to use K-3 literacy curricula aligned with the science of reading. Some are already seeing improvements in their ability to detect and address reading delays.

At the same time, a growing number of parents are seeking to screen their kids for such delays themselves.

The Southport School 鈥� a private school that has used science of reading-based instruction since long before Right to Read 鈥� has for years offered free reading screenings to Connecticut parents through its outreach arm, The Southport CoLAB. This spring, CoLAB partnered with Sacred Heart University to expand capacity for the screenings amid skyrocketing demand.

鈥淚t鈥檚 twice as many as last year,鈥� said Southport Executive Director and CoLAB founder Benjamin Powers.

Powers said it鈥檚 all too common to see kids with reading delays pass undetected through school until fourth or fifth grade. By that point, he said, it鈥檚 much harder for them to catch up to their peers. To make matters worse, fourth grade is typically when kids start 鈥渞eading to learn鈥� 鈥� meaning if they can鈥檛 read, their other learning will suffer, too.

鈥淔rom a developmental standpoint, we are much better off 鈥� exponentially better 鈥� by flagging these kids early,鈥� Powers said.

That鈥檚 where reading screeners come in.

How to screen for a reading delay

Powers said the screener Southport uses lasts between 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the age of the child. It takes place on a tablet and runs kids through activities that gather data on different cognitive processes 鈥� things like 鈥渞apid automatized naming,鈥� which tests how quickly a child can retrieve the names of a variety of familiar objects from their memory.

At the end, the program produces a 鈥渢eacher and parent-friendly report鈥� identifying whether the child in question is at risk for something like dyslexia. Powers said it doesn鈥檛 diagnose the condition itself; rather, it 鈥済ives us an early marker so that we can just be proactive with the child, the teacher and the family.鈥�

Being proactive, he explained, is largely a question of dosage.

鈥淪ome kids just need a lot more exposure and practice,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we do need to be targeted 鈥� So, if it鈥檚 a child who鈥檚 really struggling with certain letter patterns or sound symbol relationships, we want to make sure we鈥檙e targeting those specific attributes.鈥�

鈥淏ut,鈥� he emphasized, 鈥渆very child really needs the same kind of scope and sequence to build the reading brain.鈥� Some may have to work at it a bit longer than others, but overall, 鈥渢he vast majority 鈥� vast majority 鈥� of kids can learn to read.鈥�

Through Right to Read, that same principle is now being disseminated throughout Connecticut鈥檚 public schools. Although the screeners they use may be shorter 鈥� the popular DIBELS assessment, which many districts employ, takes under 10 minutes 鈥� the strategy is the same: Guide each child through a series of prompts, use the data to flag specific skills they may be struggling to develop, then respond with targeted intervention.

Stratford Assistant Superintendent for PreK-6 Diana DiIorio explained how the DIBELS screener works.

鈥淭he teacher sits one-on-one with the child. It is on a Chromebook. 鈥� It’s very self-explanatory. They hit a button that starts, they have prompts of what to ask the child and the child responds on the Chromebook according to what they feel the answer is. A lot of it is timed,鈥� DiIorio said.

Before Right to Read, DiIorio said, Stratford鈥檚 screening regimen was much more focused on comprehension.

鈥淲hat we were missing was the really systematic and explicit teaching of all of those phonemic awareness and phonics skills, which is the basis and the foundation鈥� of more advanced reading, she said.

Consequently, DiIorio said, they would miss students who arrived in kindergarten already reading but who lacked the building blocks for multisyllabic words 鈥� a deficiency that wouldn鈥檛 become apparent until the students suddenly hit a wall in fourth grade.

New Haven Supervisor of Elementary Reading and Language Arts Jennifer Novelli gave an example of how a teacher might test younger children for 鈥減honeme segmentation fluency,鈥� a skill they develop before they actually learn to read. Phoneme segmentation means breaking down the individual sounds within words kids hear.

鈥淪o, if I say 鈥榤op,鈥� the child would be expected to take that word and segment it鈥� into its discrete sounds, Novelli said 鈥� those being the 鈥渕m鈥� sound, the short 鈥渙鈥� and the 鈥減.鈥�

In this case, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e not looking at letters. We鈥檙e just testing to make sure they understand and know how to break words apart,鈥� Novelli said.

Phoneme segmentation, Novelli explained, falls under the umbrella of phonological awareness, which she described as 鈥渁 precursor skill to reading.鈥�

The schools CT Mirror spoke with all said they screen three times per year, with some employing other forms of progress monitoring in between. Initial results from two very different districts suggest it鈥檚 having an impact.

In relatively affluent Fairfield 鈥� predominantly white, with under one-fifth of students receiving free or reduced price meals 鈥� 74% of kindergarteners in the 2023-24 school year were already proficient in reading. There were concerns that the district鈥檚 new science of reading-aligned curriculum and screening regimen (done through Acadience, not DIBELS) would cause a dip as teachers and administrators got acclimated to the new material, but the opposite happened: By the time those same students left first grade the following year, the number had nudged upward to 78%.

鈥淵ou do expect implementation dips. We did not see them,鈥� said Janine Goss, executive director of PK-12 literacy at Fairfield. That applied to every cohort receiving the new Right to Read instruction.

The story is much different in New Haven 鈥� predominantly Black and Latino, with roughly three quarters of students receiving free or reduced price meals. There, the vast majority of students already have substantial reading delays by the time they start school. In 2024, for example, 61% of first graders were “well below” grade level, according to Novelli.

But the science of reading-aligned programming she helped institute has still had a notable impact: By second grade, only about 51% were still testing “well below,” and the percentage of students in that cohort reading at or above grade level increased.

Novelli said the dreaded 鈥渟ummer slide,鈥� a decline in reading ability that typically occurs over the long vacation, has also diminished.

Nevertheless, the results still leave about half of New Haven鈥檚 second grade class seriously behind in reading. This despite the fact that, per Powers, the vast majority of them can learn.

Much room for improvement

Novelli said one of the reasons many kids in New Haven are still behind in reading is a shortage of pre-kindergarten education.

鈥淥ur students that go to our preschools in the city are definitely better equipped and more ready with the literacy skills,鈥� Novelli said. 鈥淚f we were able to open more classrooms and have more seats 鈥� it would be better.鈥�

She added that New Haven鈥檚 director of early childhood, who joined the district three years ago, has implemented 鈥渁 very strong phonemic awareness and phonics program鈥� for 3- and 4-year-olds.

The kids who don鈥檛 get that early education 鈥� those who begin school in kindergarten and haven鈥檛 built (English) reading skills at home 鈥� are more likely to start at a disadvantage. In theory, they can still catch up, but that requires having enough teachers with the right training and the time to administer the needed interventions.

Therein lies another problem.

Although Connecticut has firmly embraced the science of reading, at least for K-3, few new teachers graduate from college with the skills to interpret and act on the results of a screener. It often falls to individual districts to train these new hires 鈥� not to mention all the existing teachers who were never taught these skills when they started.

Stratford鈥檚 DiIorio said this is where much of the real work of converting a district to the science of reading takes place.

鈥淲e spent all last year looking at the data [from the reading screenings],鈥� DiIorio said. 鈥淗ow to analyze the data, and then what to do with it. And then it was a whole ‘nother module of planning lessons based on what data was in front of you.鈥�

DiIorio said Stratford was in one of the first cohorts to attend state training on the science of reading, meeting about once a month, 鈥渇ive or six times out of the year.鈥� Since then, the district has partnered with HILL for Literacy for online training, in-person coaching and data analysis.

The challenge, DiIorio said, is 鈥渂ringing that knowledge to the entire district.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 eight schools. We only had a handful [of staff] that went to that first cohort,鈥� DiIorio said.

Goss said many of her efforts in Fairfield have also gone toward teacher training. Under her leadership, Fairfield created district and building-level literacy teams across its elementary and middle schools.

With 200 classroom teachers at the elementary level alone, 鈥渢here was no way I, one person, was going to be able to get to each and every teacher,鈥� Goss explained.

She also praised her staff for taking new staff members 鈥渦nder their wings.鈥�

鈥淲e feel really good about knowing that even though they may not have the experience they need coming straight from college, they’re going to get that support when they come into our schools,鈥� Goss said.

DiIorio said getting new teachers into shape is a challenge that extends well beyond the science of reading.

鈥淚 went through it myself,鈥� DiIorio said. 鈥淚 have a teaching degree. Nobody shows you how to handle management of students, the behaviors of the students, the social emotional skills. You learn about it. You learn that there’s trauma in children. 鈥� But the training is not there.鈥�

There is an implicit issue of equity here. Because of , those located in wealthier towns typically have far more resources than those in cities like New Haven or Hartford, where the local tax base is stretched thin (Gov. Ned Lamont initiated a Blue-Ribbon Commission this year to find ways to ). More resources can mean more robust training for new hires.

DiIorio said she experienced this firsthand, too.

鈥淚 started in a very affluent school district, a couple miles away. My training as a new teacher was so different from when I came to Stratford as a principal. It was so eye-opening 鈥� the difference in new teacher training and what they get,鈥� DiIorio said.

Novelli said New Haven has literacy coaches in each building to provide professional development on the science of reading to teachers but would benefit from having more dedicated reading interventionists. A reading interventionist, she explained, spends all day in targeted small group instruction.

鈥淟ast year, we did lose two positions 鈥� and we don’t have enough people as it is,鈥� Novelli said. 鈥淚f we could have a certified reading interventionist at each school, it would be so helpful.鈥�

There鈥檚 a shortage of these certified specialists. That issue came up at of the General Assembly鈥檚 BERGIN Commission, where University of Connecticut literacy professor Rachael Gabriel shared data showing so-called Tier 2 interventions (which includes targeted group instruction) can actually create worse outcomes for kids if done poorly.

鈥淭here was a shortage in this area [of literacy specialists] when I moved to Connecticut 16 years ago, and the programs [to train them] have shrunk, not grown,鈥� Gabriel said.

She told the commission members the program she oversees at UConn has only 11 students, prompting an exclamation of shock from one of the listeners.

鈥淸This kind of training] is largely inaccessible. Our program is 鈥� over 18 months, and it is 21 credits, like the state requires. And so, that鈥檚 almost a master鈥檚 degree,鈥� Gabriel said. 鈥淭hat is super expensive. So, for a practicing teacher to say, 鈥業鈥檓 gonna take my evenings and my weekends and do this for two years and pay $30-$40,000 for it,鈥� is a really significant ask.鈥�

Powers, meanwhile, has his own concerns.

鈥淚f you would ask me 10 years ago, I would have been bullish on the science of reading movement, because it is, you know, it is an important movement,鈥� Powers said. But 鈥渨hen I look at the reading scores, we’re really not moving the needle.鈥�

He said something else now keeps him up at night: a steep decline in students鈥� executive function over the last 10 years or so.

鈥淭en years ago, somebody could focus on the screen for about two and a half minutes before they got distracted. Today, that’s down to about 40 seconds,鈥� Power said. 鈥淲e have kids who can pay less attention, are less focused, you know, just aren’t able to have that same uptake.鈥�

And executive function, Powers said, is directly tied to reading outcomes.

鈥淲hen I go in, especially now, like K-5 schools, what I hear from them is alarming,鈥� Powers said.

As to why kids鈥� executive function is declining, Powers said he has a few ideas.

鈥淨ualitatively speaking, you see, going to the grocery store, parents are just giving kids their phones to keep them occupied. Or even on the playground, you’ll see parents pushing kids on the swing set, and they’re looking at their phone,鈥� Powers said. 鈥淜ids just don’t have the same reading exposure they used to.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Nestling House typically operated with a dozen staff who served over 30 children from age 6 weeks to 12 years old. But the program had lost almost half of its staff and some families stopped sending their children. 

鈥淲e were operating in pods, there was less staff. The hours were less. Everything felt like less,鈥� said Loryn Denny, the center鈥檚 executive director.

When the acute crisis had subsided and the center reopened, there were fewer children enrolled, but the leadership team decided to reduce rates to make the cost more affordable for remaining families, which resulted in lower revenue. 

Nestling House, like many other programs, was able to stay afloat with federal pandemic relief funding provided through the American Rescue Plan Act. In Wisconsin, the funds were distributed through , a program that sent monthly payments to the state鈥檚 providers. 

In addition to supporting the center鈥檚 operating costs, the additional funding allowed Nestling House to give its staff bonuses, buy new outdoor playground equipment and purchase a gently used school bus which they were able to use to shuttle kids to and from the center. 

When the ARPA funds originally dedicated to Child Care Counts , Wisconsin was able to stretch the funding and continue the payments . The state subsequently created , a temporary 12-month program that sends monthly stipends to providers based on enrollment and staffing, which will end on June 30.听

After about six years of receiving these monthly payments, the shift will be a stark change for Wisconsin providers and programs, including Nestling House, which receives close to $4,000 a month in bridge payments, split between its two locations, according to Denny. The leadership team doesn鈥檛 have an immediate plan for how to make up the shortfall other than charging families higher rates or paying providers even less, neither of which they want to do. 

Nestling House will lose close to $50,000 per year, Denny said. One way to close the gap would be to add three additional infants to the full-time program, which would bring in about $21,000 a year each, but the program is already at capacity, and they have been as creative as possible with ways to add space. 

鈥淲e aren’t going to make up the money,鈥� said Jannelle Litos, the center鈥檚 enrollment and financial coordinator. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 given substantial raises, we have held off and then given two bonuses which felt good. It would be nice to pay more 鈥� and hire more qualified people.鈥� Every year, she said, the team talks to a healthcare broker to see if Nestling House can afford to provide health insurance for employees, and every year they don鈥檛 have sufficient funds to do so.

鈥淢y fear is losing highly skilled staff because they can make more money and better benefits elsewhere,鈥� said Betsy Guerrero, a director at one of Nestling House鈥檚 two locations. 

In 2025, the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Children & Families published a highlighting findings from a survey that asked childcare providers about what would happen if the Child Care Counts Stabilization Payments Program expired.

that providers anticipated negative impacts for their childcare programs, including trouble with staffing, lower compensation, higher tuition payments for families and a decrease in their ability to provide high quality care. A quarter of the providers surveyed said they were likely to close. 

At Nestling House, leaders are concerned that many of their staff may leave. 鈥淵ou get what you pay for. 鈥� If I am continually having to replace a quality hire with an untrained person, I am spending more time managing adults than curating the program,鈥� said Denny. 鈥淭he focus in childcare should be on the children in our opinion.鈥�

For Tamara Summerville, a home-based childcare provider in Milwaukee, the Child Care Counts payments have been core to her business model. She opened her program in December 2020, and began receiving the payments the following year. The monthly stipends allowed her to buy supplies, nutritional snacks and pay her staff more through bonuses. Even as her program鈥檚 enrollment fluctuated (as several children have changed residences through the state鈥檚 foster care system), the extra funds allowed her to consistently keep staff on hand. 

鈥淚 love kids. Especially in this community,鈥� Summerville said. 鈥淚 want to provide somewhere safe for them to be.鈥� She estimates that she brings in about $800 a month through bridge payments. 

鈥淐hildcare is not promising. It makes enough money to be sustainable, sometimes,鈥� said Summerville, but she explained that it’s not enough to make ends meet.

Wisconsin has benefitted from an historically large and there is 鈥渉uge discussion about what the dollars will get used on,鈥� said Sara Shaw, deputy research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Shaw posits that the two main suspects for additional dollars would be increasing aid for K-12 schools and lowering property taxes, but an earlier deal and no plan emerged. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not clear where childcare is falling on the list of priorities, but the possibility is there,鈥� she said. 

Some that have gained attention in Wisconsin include expanding employer tax credits and and then directing some of the additional revenue toward early care and education.

Gov. Tony Evers is , so a new governor will be elected this fall. The change in leadership could impact where childcare falls in the list of state budget surplus priorities. But no immediate change is coming, so after June 30, providers will be left to figure out immediate stopgap solutions to stay open. 

鈥淚 don’t know if it’s possible to go back to things pre-COVID,鈥� said Shaw. Childcare has gotten more attention on the national level, and the influx of public funding has been widely proven to have a positive impact. When that funding dries up, the state’s childcare providers 鈥� including Nestling House and Summerville 鈥� will be left to figure out how to balance their budgets and stay open. 鈥淲hat we hear is that in order to continue competing they will need to raise prices, which is pricing out families, or close,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e will have to see what actually happens.鈥�

Every year, parents 鈥� usually mothers 鈥� toil months in advance of the summer break to sign kids up for camps, book nannies, fly grandparents out to help or sort out a medley of arrangements and schedules. Planning can start as far as a year in advance.听

After signing her kids up for all their assorted activities, one mom said she then . 

The summer months for school-aged kids are probably one of the best examples of America鈥檚 you-figure-it-out attitude toward most things related to caregiving.

Unlike in other countries, the United States summer programming experience is fragmented: You could book a private camp or one through your local YMCA, school district or church 鈥� all with different registration dates, waitlists and signup policies. Demand is often much higher than supply. And many of the options don鈥檛 run with the actual workday, which leaves parents responsible for brokering time with their employers. 

Cost has increasingly become a barrier for families looking to put their kids in summer activities, which now run about per summer per kid on average. Only about half of children whose parents want them to have a structured summer experience are actually enrolled in summer camps or day camps, according to by the nonprofit Afterschool Alliance that surveyed 30,000 American families. For 38 percent of the families that are unable to enroll their kids, cost is the top factor. The other barriers are transportation challenges, not being able to find a program, not having programs available in their community, program hours that don鈥檛 meet parents鈥� needs and not enough spaces in the programs that are available. 

What all of this looks like in practice is a summer camp rat race that often begins at the start of the year. 

鈥淪ummer camp, similar to other childcare and education systems, has not kept up with the reality of most children being in families where all the parents are working, whether that’s a single parent working full time or whether it’s two parents working full time,鈥� said Inimai Chettiar, the president of A Better Balance, a nonprofit that promotes workplace balance for women and caregivers. 鈥淭his is a system from the previous generations where a lot of moms were staying home.鈥� 

The result is that summer camp falls into the bucket of things Chettiar calls 鈥渉ome admin work.鈥� 

鈥淭his is part of the invisible work that women do: not only having to figure out what camps to go to, what schools for the kids to go to, doing the research, going to the tours, comparing the different schools, figuring that out, figuring out the drop off, if you need to hire someone, or taking time out of work to go do it 鈥� all of this is falling on women,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he administration of this has exploded in terms of the burden on mothers.鈥� 

Ahead of the summer break, The 19th spoke to five moms across the country about how they鈥檙e piecing together their kids summer plans 鈥� and critically, how they鈥檙e paying for them. 

Amanda Hambrick

• New York City
• Minister
• Number of kids: 4
• Summer cost: $14,250

During the last week of the summer, when most camps are closed and parents are left scrambling, Amanda Hambrick helps put on a focused on social justice for kids entering kindergarten to 8th grade. Their 50 spots are almost gone. 

For the rest of the time, she has a mix of activities to keep her four kids 鈥� 12-year-old twins, a 10-year-old and a 3-year-old 鈥� entertained during the eight weeks of New York City summer. 

Here鈥檚 the breakdown: 

• She and her ex-husband will each take two weeks off of work, staggering their time: 10 days out of the PTO bucket each
• One week of sleepaway camp for the twins and 10-year-old: $2,000
• Four weeks of day camp for the twins at about $800 a week: $6,400
• Two weeks of acting camp for her 10-year-old: $1,400
• Two weeks of gymnastics camp for her 10-year-old: $1,750
• Four weeks of part-time daycare for her 3-year-old: $1,200
• Four weeks of a nanny to help with pickups: $1,500

The total: $14,250

By New York standards, that鈥檚 pretty affordable. Hambrick is also cutting costs by volunteering her time as a camp counselor at the sleepaway camp, and she鈥檚 going to be bringing her toddler with her to work some days a week. 

Hambrick said she鈥檚 always had to 鈥渇igure out the summer Jenga,鈥� a job that has often involved tapping into networks of moms to find the best camps and secure slots. Her recent divorce has made the labor of it that much more challenging. Schedules need to be ironed out even earlier in the year now. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 part of that invisible labor of actually getting it done and piecing it together, and a big part of that also is relationship building,鈥� she said. 鈥淢oms just understand that you’re going to find out about affordable camps and fun camps and good camps through conversations and relationships that you have with people and with the community, and so that’s the way that I’ve been able to make our summers work so far throughout all my kids’ lives.鈥�

Maddy Novich 

• New York City
• Associate professor of criminal justice
• Number of kids: 3
• Summer cost: $24,370

Years ago, when Maddy Novich was on a two-week trip to the Netherlands, a lightbulb went off for her and her husband. 

If they were back home in New York City, their 4-year-old would be in summer camp and they鈥檇 be having to navigate one of the most chaotic systems in the country. But what if they put him in a camp for a week while they were abroad? That way, she and her husband could have some time to do all the things their son didn鈥檛 want to do, like art museums. They looked it up on a whim and soon realized there were a lot of camp options. So they tried it 鈥� and he loved it. They tried it again the next year, then the next, then the next, each time extending the duration of their trips abroad and building summer camp into the experience no matter where they went. 

In Europe, where they usually go for the summer, signing up and finding summer camp 鈥渋s much less crazy, it’s much less competitive, from my experience and the places that I’ve been to,鈥� Novich said. It鈥檚 also typically more affordable compared to camps in New York, which easily run . 

Novich vets the camps ahead of time by looking at reviews and ensuring they have English-speaking staff. Over time, she鈥檚 built relationships in places they鈥檝e visited multiple times, like Amsterdam. 

Here鈥檚 how the cost broke down last year for nine weeks overseas with three kids, ages 12, 8 and 5: 

• Two weeks of summer camp in Scotland for the two eldest: $2,000
• One week of summer camp in Amsterdam for the youngest: Free because it was covered for them (cost is otherwise $350 a week)
• A nanny to help for part of the summer: $3,000
• Flights: $5,700
• Other travel (trains, buses and rideshares): $3,500
• Hotel stays: $750
• Groceries (about comparable to what she spends in New York): $5,600
• Eating out: $2,000
• A trip to the emergency room when her daughter dislocated a toe: $107
• Other miscellaneous costs: $893
• Other kids鈥� activities (museums, aquariums, bounce houses): $820

The total: $24,370

What really unlocked this summer option for Novich was securing largely free housing through a platform called Home Exchange. An annual membership costs $235 and it allows them to swap homes at no cost with other families who want to come stay in New York. (Novich doesn鈥檛 pay the fee because she works with the company). Another plus: She swaps with families that also have kids, so they don鈥檛 have to worry about schlepping all the kid stuff they need 鈥� beds, cribs, high chairs, toys 鈥� overseas. Novich estimates they saved about $35,000 last year on housing alone. 

Of course, there are caveats, Novich said. Her frame of reference is New York, one of the most expensive summer camp markets in the country. And, because she has the summers off  through her work and her husband has a flexible tech job, they are able to go abroad. They travel extensively, so some of the costs are part of their summer budget. The family usually starts mapping their trips out a year in advance, and they share their journey . 

鈥淭he response has overwhelmingly been very positive because it’s just encouraging people to think outside the box a little bit, and saying the way that the U.S. does it isn’t the only way,鈥� Novich said. 

This summer will be their most ambitious yet: four different camps in Spain, Switzerland and Greece, and her two oldest kids are doing sleepaway camp in Switzerland for the first time. The entire family will be gone 11 weeks. 

LaQuitta Brown

• Detroit
• Certified nursing assistant 
• Number of kids: 5, 2 school-age
• Summer cost: $1,000

Summer camp options are already difficult enough to find 鈥� and when your child has a disability, the challenges compound. Last summer, LaQuitta Brown got lucky. 

She was able to enroll her 8-year-old son, who has autism, ADHD and an avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, in a Detroit program that caters to children with disabilities. Her son, Kermari, was able to participate in Spanish-language immersion, dancing and cooking. 

This year, he鈥檒l be back. The program starts in July and runs for five weeks, costing her about $700. (The family doesn鈥檛 qualify for subsidies to lower costs.) 

That means costs this year will include: 

• Five weeks of summer camp: $700 
• Extra hours with a caretaker in June before summer camp starts: $300

Her husband is already stretched as thin as possible 鈥� he works every day at an engine manufacturer鈥� and her other school-age son, who is 14, will be working this summer for the first time (the rest of her children are in their 20s). So it鈥檚 up to her to bridge the time between now and the start of camp. Brown, a certified nursing assistant, had already stepped back from full-time work to take on only on-call shifts so that her schedule could be more responsive to her son鈥檚 needs. But she still plans to take on two to three more shifts a week to cover the cost of camp. She鈥檚 also attending a few free activities available around the city throughout the summer, plus upping his direct care services with a caretaker. Before Kermari got into summer camp, this is how she bridged the entire summer. 

All things considered, she said, it鈥檚 still a win because at least there is an option on the horizon that works for her family. When he first did the summer camp program last year, Kermari had an incredible experience. So Brown kept an eye on whether it was returning this year and signed up in April 鈥� as soon as she could. 

鈥淲hen you have children that are socially and emotionally incapable of certain things, but you see them happy, you want to continue that at whatever cost it is and sacrifice whatever you need to sacrifice to make sure that you can bring that happiness back to them when they鈥檙e out in the world,鈥� Brown said. 

Claire de Leon

• Long Beach, California
• Communications strategist
• Number of kids: 2
• Summer cost: $8,892

Claire de Leon started thinking about summer camp for her 5-year-old early this year. Pretty soon, there was a spreadsheet of math, reading and STEM and other camps they were considering. She was already too late for many of them. 

The slots filled up quickly and some of the more affordable options had dubious reviews online, with parents flagging safety concerns. So she started thinking more expansively about how to fill the summer months. That鈥檚 when she thought of Belgium. Her longtime best friend moved there with her family a couple of years ago, and de Leon promised to visit her every year. What if they made that trip in the summer? Their housing would be covered and the kids could play together.

So that鈥檚 the plan: Three-and-a-half weeks in Brussels, where de Leon will work remotely while her husband takes two weeks off. Then, when they鈥檙e back stateside, she and her friend will swap. Her friend鈥檚 family will come to California to stay with them for a month, and de Leon鈥檚 5-year-old will go to five weeks of half-day camp in Long Beach, from 9 a.m to noon.  The family will also spend a week and a half in Seattle later in the summer with grandparents who will help take on some of the care while de Leon works. 

Here鈥檚 how it will shake out: 

• Flights to Brussels: $2,120
• An overnight train from Austria to Brussels: $400
• Half-day camp in Long Beach for five weeks: $500
• Full-time daycare for her 2-year-old: $1,770 a month, $5,310 for the whole summer
• Flights to Seattle: $562 

All combined, it鈥檚 $8,892.

For her, easing the stress of summer planning meant getting really creative about what was possible within her family鈥檚 means and leveraging the relationships they had 鈥� both in the United States and out of it. 

鈥淭he more that I can approach it from not from a place of scarcity, but from a place of: What could be possible? What could we do? It really felt like it opened up these doors,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t sounds so odd to say, but thinking about going to Europe as a relatively affordable option for our very, very particular situation of having friends there was like, 鈥榃e can do that?鈥� It just sounds to me like something someone else would do.鈥� 

Meghan Hullinger

• Marlinton, West Virginia
• Outreach and community engagement
• Number of kids: 4
• Summer cost: $2,100鈥�$2,550

In the pocket of rural West Virginia where Meghan Hullinger lives with her four kids, there is just one childcare center for the entire county. There are camps, but few of the families in this lower-income area can afford to put their kids in them. A two-week camp could run her $8,000. 鈥淚 make $25,000 a year, so that鈥檚 not possible.鈥�

In rural areas with few options, single moms like Hullinger are banding together to make it work. 

This summer, her 6-year-old will spend about a month in Florida with the girl鈥檚 father and grandmother. Her teenage daughters, ages 13 and 16, will spend the summer at home. And her 8-year-old will go to a free camp his school puts on from 8 a.m. to noon every weekday for six weeks. A friend will help her with pick-ups on Mondays and Tuesdays, and she鈥檒l try to leave work early on Wednesdays and Thursdays, plus her 16-year-old can pitch in with childcare or she can put her son a couple weeks in the local daycare, which also takes older kids, for a couple of weeks. But that鈥檚 an extra $450 a month that she just doesn鈥檛 have right now.

Though her community of mom friends help each other, she sometimes has as many as eight kids in her house to feed 鈥� plus the extra gas to even get to the store at a time when . The nearest Walmart is an hour and 15 minutes away by car.

The costs add up:

• Extra groceries in the summer months: $900
• Drive to Florida and back to drop her daughter off: $700
• Flight to bring her daughter home: $500
• Six weeks of summer camp for her 8-year-old: Free
• Extra daycare if needed: $450

Together, that鈥檚 about $2,100 if she doesn鈥檛 do daycare, or $2,550 with it. 

It frustrates her, she said, that it takes this much stitching together to get through three months out of the year. Families 鈥� read: mothers 鈥� are just expected to make it work. 

鈥淲e’re still back in that late 40s, early 50s supposition that women are at home all day with nothing better to do,鈥�  she said. 鈥淲e are still running our nation and our policies based upon the presumption of unpaid labor, and that’s just not a reality. It has not been a reality for so very long, and I don’t understand why we’re ignoring that as a nation.鈥�

was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of . .

A recent from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska offers new insights into the extent of the field鈥檚 attrition rates, finding that only 56% of the early care and education workforce that was active in 2023 remained active two years later. 

In other words, between 2023 and 2025, 44% of staff working directly with children 鈥� such as teachers, program directors and owners 鈥� left the workforce, representing a loss of nearly 90,000 early childhood educators across the eight states that participated in the analysis. 

鈥淚 figured it would be high,鈥� said Alexandra Daro, director of applied research at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute and an author of the report. 鈥淚 was surprised it was that high. 鈥� That鈥檚 insane.鈥�

Consistent, stable caregivers are critically important for young children鈥檚 development, noted Linda Smith, another author of the report who recently left the institute to lead The Child Care Trust, a nonprofit focused on early childhood policy solutions. Yet the field lacks good measures of how often early educators leave their jobs.

To better understand staff turnover, researchers at Buffett looked at data from state workforce registries, which are systems that track information about the early childhood workforce, including each employee鈥檚 age, role, credentials and participation in the workforce over time. The report focused on staff working in licensed early childhood programs, including both center- and home-based settings. 

Of the 45 states with a confirmed workforce registry, eight ultimately agreed to participate in the analysis, Daro said. The participating states were Illinois, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. 

In 2023, those eight states had about 205,000 early childhood educators in their registry data. By 2025, that number had dropped to under 116,000. 

The state-level findings show a wider range of outcomes. Turnover was lowest in Maine, at 39%. It was highest in Montana (62%), followed by Tennessee (61%). 

Of the six states that provided registry data broken down by role, turnover rates were highest among teaching staff, with center-based assistant teachers especially likely to leave. This is notable, Smith said, because 鈥渢he single biggest factor for outcomes for children is the quality of adult interactions.鈥� When new teachers are frequently cycling through a program, it becomes difficult for children to develop strong bonds with them, creating fewer opportunities for high-quality interactions. 

One of the most interesting findings from the analysis, both Daro and Smith said, is the impact of educational attainment on retention rates. Educators who had an early childhood-specific degree or credential, such as the nationally recognized Child Development Associate, or an associate or bachelor鈥檚 degree in early childhood education, were more likely to remain in their roles two years later. 

Daro called early childhood credentials a 鈥減rotective factor鈥� for the workforce, given how much they seem to contribute to retention. 

The researchers found that, compared to a 56% retention rate among all educators included in the eight-state analysis, 70% of educators with an associate degree in early childhood education remained in the workforce, 65% of educators with a CDA credential remained, and 63% of educators with a general associate degree did. 

鈥淐hildcare is hard work. It鈥檚 hard, physical work,鈥� said Smith. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e not trained to understand basic child development, how you react to child behaviors varies.鈥� 

But educators with a CDA, on the other hand, 鈥渒now what to do,鈥� she added. 鈥淭hey know how to manage children.鈥�

Daro believes that, with three more states currently in the process of implementing a state workforce registry, the field is getting close to being able to look at the national turnover rate in early care and education using this kind of detailed registry data. 

In the meantime, there is much to be learned from what these results from the eight states show, she said: High turnover rates, on top of low compensation and inconsistent qualifications among educators, adds to the volatility and instability of the early care and education sector. But educational attainment, particularly through a targeted early childhood education degree or credential, may offer a path forward.

The takeaway, Smith said, is clear: 鈥淲e need people trained in early childhood and child development. When they have that, they tend to stay.鈥�

After the birth of her son, Rex, in 2019, Jasmin Almendarez realized childcare costs in central Texas were so high that returning to work no longer made economic sense. 

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to spend that much time away, pay all of that, and then get minimal time for my first baby.鈥� But by the time Rex was 3, she noticed signs of a speech delay, so she decided it would be best to send him to an early learning program to increase his interactions with peers. She began researching local options and reached out to Pre-K 4 SA, a preschool not far from her home in San Antonio. 

She visited the program, which was in a brand new building with a spacious outdoor play area. The staff was friendly, she said, and meals were included. She didn鈥檛 think such an in-demand location would have an opening for Rex, but they did 鈥� and she was surprised to learn that he could attend at no cost to her. 

Pre-K 4 SA is a citywide early childhood education initiative that operates multiple preschools across San Antonio. Rex, like 80% of children enrolled in the program, qualified for a full scholarship.

After one year, Almendarez said she noticed improvements in his speech. Rex learned his letters and how to count, and even how to swim. When her second son, Raiden, turned 3, she enrolled him as well. Now, pregnant with her third child, she hopes to enroll the baby in the Pre-K 4 SA pilot program for infants and toddlers. She also hopes to put her degree in early childhood education to use and be hired as a teacher in the program. 

Like Almendarez, Mariana Rios was hesitant to send her daughter Emma to preschool. Her husband鈥檚 family is Salvadoran and believed young children should stay home with a parent or relative. But Rios and her husband were intrigued by the quality of education that Pre-K 4 SA offered and decided to enroll Emma in 2023. Because of the sliding-scale cost model, Emma鈥檚 tuition was only $128 per month. 

When Emma began kindergarten after two years at the preschool, Rios recalled her teacher saying she could spot the kids who had attended Pre-K 4 SA based on their exemplary behavioral and social skills. Her mother-in-law, once a vocal skeptic of preschool, now encourages other family members to talk to Rios about the benefits of the program.

From modest backing to broad support for early childhood 

Emma, Rex and Raiden are just three of more than 23,000 children who have gone through Pre-K 4 SA since the program began in 2013. The first two locations opened their doors to 4-year-olds shortly after San Antonio voters in 2012 to add a 鈪�-cent city sales tax to fund early childhood programs. One-eight of a cent was the maximum increase the city could make, according to Texas law, which caps sales tax at .听

The sales tax revenue, which has steadily grown, has come to serve as a dedicated revenue source for the program鈥檚 five locations. At the time of its proposal, the tax was estimated to . In 2025, it brought in , the bulk of Pre-K 4 SA鈥檚 $61.2 million annual revenue. 

The path to building a designated funding source for early childhood education was complicated. The idea for Pre-K 4 SA came from then-Mayor Juli谩n Castro, who created a , featuring prominent local business leaders, to address some of the issues plaguing San Antonio. Those included the city鈥檚 , its and . The city was also facing a : Young people were moving to Austin for college and then staying there. 

The task force came up with a plan to improve San Antonio: , and allocate a specified revenue source to do so. 

In March 2012, in his State of the City address, Castro to put a sales tax increase directed to Pre-K 4 SA on the ballot, but he wasn鈥檛 sure how it would go since any change to the sales tax .

In November 2012, many community members were unconvinced that 4-year-olds belonged in schools, said Sarah Baray, CEO of Pre-K 4 SA. 鈥淭here were a lot of questions about whether the city belonged in education at all.鈥� The plan faced opposition from some residents in the business community, from higher-income residents and even from leaders in local school districts, who viewed the city鈥檚 plan to establish pre-K centers as competition for their own publicly funded pre-K programs. 

鈥淭exas is a state that doesn鈥檛 like to pay taxes,鈥� said Baray. Ultimately a sales tax was the path of least resistance. 

鈥淧roperty taxes tend to be highly visible and directly tied to household finances,鈥� said Larrisa Wilkinson, deputy CEO of Pre-K 4 SA. 鈥淪ales taxes, although regressive, are smaller costs spread across many people in everyday purchases, so they鈥檙e less noticeable and less likely to trigger strong pushback,鈥� she said. 

The 2012 measure passed with . Within a year, Pre-K 4 SA opened two centers. A year later,

By 2020, when the sales tax was up for renewal, the initiative had been underway for seven years and had . By that time, there was evidence of success. conducted by University of Texas at San Antonio found that by third grade, Pre-K 4 SA students had higher math and reading scores as compared to their peers. The most pronounced effects were for children from low-income families and those with limited English proficiency. A cost-benefit of Pre-K 4 SA found that families enrolled in its extended-day program earned an average of $240 more per week than families who did not participate. For many families in San Antonio, a city with one of the , those funds can make the difference between living in financial security or hovering close to the poverty line. 

These data points made going back to the community and asking for support easier the second time, said Paul Chapman, who had been the chief communications officer at the time and now serves as chief operating officer at Pre-K 4 SA. 鈥淲e could communicate to the community the status of what they have invested in and how we are doing.鈥� In 2020, the ballot measure .

Along the way, the program continued to grow, adding a fifth center in 2019, which opened in partnership with a local school district.

As part of its mission to improve the quality of childcare, the program also provides shared services, training and education for more than 90 childcare providers in San Antonio. In 2025, Pre-K 4 SA spent over of its annual revenue on grants for external childcare providers in San Antonio, which has helped neutralize some of their earlier opposition that had viewed the program as a competitor. 

While sales tax revenue can vary year to year, it has provided enough stability to continue expanding. One of its locations, South Education Center, opened a new building in August 2025, as part of a with HOLT Group, a large, local manufacturing company. HOLT paid to build the center, which expanded capacity to serve more families, and the intention is that Pre-K 4 SA will buy it back over time, said Tonda Brown, Pre-K 4 SA鈥檚 chief of schools.

Astonishing teacher retention in a field with high turnover

Pre-K 4 SA has made deep investments in its workforce: All teachers and support staff are city employees with benefits including health insurance, paid time off and a retirement plan. 

The average pay for the program鈥檚 lead teachers is between $71,743 and $90,396, well over the of $65,000, and some lead teachers with extensive experience make over $100,000, Brown said. (Nationally, preschool teachers have of $32,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.) 

In April 2026, 324 teachers were offered a contract to return in 2026-27, Brown said. All but two submitted a letter of intent to return 鈥� an astonishing feat in the U.S. early care and education sector, which struggles with .

鈥淲hat makes San Antonio different is quality,鈥� Wilkinson said. 鈥淣o program nationally does the comprehensive work that Pre-K 4 SA does,鈥� she added, referring to the combination of direct services, family engagement and professional learning opportunities. In her experience, she said, many states and localities prioritize access to early care and education over quality. 鈥淚f you do not have a quality program, what is the point? Mediocre programs can have negative impacts,鈥� she said. 

As widespread budget cuts have strained the early care and education sector, some states and localities have been exploring how best to invest in early childhood programs. While some efforts have yielded progress 鈥� , and broadening 鈥� many have relied on a temporary windfall, such as federal relief aid or a one-time budget surplus. That can create long-term expectations for providers and families that become difficult to sustain once the funding expires.

San Antonio bucked that trend by identifying that a sales tax could offer a dedicated, protected revenue source to provide more stability and consistency for childcare programs.

鈥淔unding innovation is happening on the local level,鈥� Wilkinson said. 鈥淐ommunities are saying 鈥榳e want this, we need this, we are not going to be able to rely on state funding on its own.鈥� 鈥�

The sales tax used to fund early childhood in San Antonio will be up for a vote again in 2028, and Baray said she is 鈥渃autiously optimistic鈥� for its passage. Baray has witnessed a shift in mindsets about 4-year-olds in preschool, with more families, like Rios鈥�, realizing how beneficial such programs can be for young learners. It helps, Chapman said, that family engagement, especially in the Hispanic community, was such a large part of their program.

鈥淚t didn’t negate the role of family in early education. It brought it in,鈥� said Chapman. 鈥淥ur goal is that Pre-K 4 SA earns that place of inevitability in the mind of the community that we serve.鈥�

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the ages served when the program launched and the opening date of the fifth center.

鈥淲hat we want is that, if and when families need it, there鈥檚 childcare that鈥檚 available, that works for their needs, that鈥檚 affordable and high quality,鈥� said Anne Hedgepeth, senior vice president of policy and research at Child Care Aware of America. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing a lot of gaps in that promise right now.鈥�

To get federal childcare funding, states have to put a minimum amount of their own money into the system as well. But of state funding for childcare and preschool in fiscal year 2026, conducted by Child Care Aware of America, found that seven states 鈥� Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wyoming 鈥� don鈥檛 spend any money above that bare minimum. And a handful of states don鈥檛 spend more of their own money on preschool than what is strictly required: Arizona, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Idaho and Wyoming find themselves on both lists, putting nothing extra into either system. 

The lack of additional investment has a lot of root causes, from political hesitance to the realities of state budgets, which must be balanced every year, Hedgepeth said. In part, she said, the problem stems from the end of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, which infused billions of dollars into the system and allowed states to make but has since disappeared. Other constraints include a reduction in tax revenues and cuts to federal programs stemming from the Republicans鈥� One Big Beautiful Bill package that passed last year. 

No matter its source, the lack of funding creates 鈥渁 frustration for parents and families and childcare providers on the ground,鈥� Hedgepeth said. Without more state investment, legislatures are unable to improve the system by, for example, expanding their subsidy programs to reach more families 鈥� or even to serve all eligible ones 鈥� or reimbursing providers the amount it actually costs to care for children instead of at lower rates. That has led to over a dozen states recently instituting or expanding waiting lists for childcare subsidies, leaving parents to try to pay for care out of pocket. The waitlists hurt providers, too, if they can鈥檛 enroll new families, which can lead to closures of classrooms and even entire programs. 鈥淭he whole system suffers,鈥� Hedgepeth said. 

State spending disparities have also created an uneven national system that leaves parents better or worse off depending on where they live. The study analyzed total investments for each child under age 5 for 37 states and found that spending ranged from less than $500 per child under age 5 to more than $5,000 per child. Eleven states spend between $1,500 and $9,900 per child, with Washington, D.C. spending the most. 

鈥淲e do have really different experiences state-to-state, based in part, on what states are putting into their childcare and early learning systems,鈥� Hedgepeth said. That creates frustration for families, especially those who move between states and have to navigate such different systems. But it hurts everyone. 鈥淚t also really presents a challenge when we think about having an overarching goal when it comes to child development and support of our earliest learners,鈥� she said. Children arrive at kindergarten with a variety of readiness levels depending on what was available to their families before then, she pointed out. That necessitates instituting 鈥渁 more robust floor鈥� so that there is a baseline across the whole country.

Hedgepeth sees a silver lining: In the states that are failing to spend more of their own funding, 鈥渢here is room for these states to do more and maybe even an appetite.鈥� Some of them signaled in their recent legislative sessions that they want to invest more, she said. of governors talked about childcare and early childhood education in their state of the state addresses this year. She also noted that, since the pandemic, all states are at least fully meeting the federal match requirement for childcare funding, even if many aren鈥檛 going above and beyond. There were some years before 2020, mostly in 鈥渆xtraordinary circumstances,鈥� such as a recession or budgetary challenge, when some states did not even spend that much, she said.

Even so, some states are moving in the wrong direction. Child Care Aware of America found that six states 鈥� Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Rhode Island 鈥� decreased how much of their own money they spent on childcare and preschool in fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal year 2025. West Virginia invested in childcare in fiscal year 2025 but then failed to do so in fiscal year 2026. 

According to from Child Care Aware of America, this lack of state spending has led to the first decline in the number of licensed childcare centers in several years. In the years directly after the height of the pandemic, between 2021 and 2023, childcare supply experienced 鈥渞obust growth,鈥� Hedgepeth said, after states made investments that 鈥減aid off in terms of making it possible for childcare programs to open.鈥� But between 2024 and 2025, the number of licensed centers declined by 1%. 

Hedgepeth cautioned that the data is messy and the drop is 鈥渧ery, very small.鈥� Still, she said, 鈥淚t is very clear to us that we are not moving in the direction we need to be moving.鈥� of American children already live in childcare deserts, according to a report from the Center for America Progress. In states that aren鈥檛 spending enough for providers to be able to open and operate with some semblance of financial stability, 鈥渢he supply trend is going to continue in the wrong direction,鈥� she said. 

This is especially concerning given that state budgets are about to enter a particularly rough patch. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted the to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid in history, cuts that state budgets have to absorb. The possibility that states will feel forced to further pull back from childcare and early childhood education funding in order to cover for some of those reductions is 鈥渧ery much on the horizon,鈥� Hedgepeth said. While some states started to worry about the problem in their most recent sessions, next year鈥檚 legislative sessions are where the cuts are likely to really hit home, she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at a tough several years.鈥� 

Congress can act by increasing funding for childcare programs, something it has with . 鈥淚t鈥檚 very clear that the gap is there and it needs to be closed,鈥� Hedgepeth said. 鈥淲e have a very direct call to action here, which is, 鈥楲et鈥檚 make investments to make sure we grow the supply for childcare.鈥� 鈥�

Tucked in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani鈥檚 sprawling universal childcare plan is a little-talked-about milestone: In September, the city will open what appears to be the first free daycare for municipal workers in the country. 

The center, called , is a pilot program that could prove to be a model for cities across the country that are childcare curious, but not ready to take the big universal swing. 

Housed in a renovated space on the first floor of the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building in Manhattan, home base for more than 2,000 city workers, the Little Apple will offer free care to the kids of full-time staff. All workers in the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), a city government support agency, can also take advantage of it regardless of their work location.

The center will be small 鈥� just 40 seats for children ages six weeks to 3 years old. To pay for it, the city budgeted about $1.5 million, or $35,000 per child.

鈥淭his is what Wall Street could call a good investment,鈥� Mamdani . 鈥淲e know that after housing, the cost of childcare is what is pushing working families out of this city.鈥� 

DCAS Commissioner Yume Kitasei told The 19th said the solution came about as a retention strategy, responding to the needs workers shared. In surveys, workers enthusiastically embraced the idea. One worker described access to free childcare as 鈥渓ife-changing.鈥�

That鈥檚 probably not hyperbole. Childcare affordability is a national problem that has only grown more acute. Childcare costs an average of nationwide; in New York for an infant at a center it鈥檚 closer to on average. Paying for a daycare now vies with housing costs as , so much so that some parents have had to move or . 

Cities, meanwhile, have been since the pandemic. Benefits like childcare, which some cities and private companies have dabbled with, can help address the quality-of-life issues that are pushing workers out of jobs. 

鈥淭his is a great time for us to sort of be thinking about: How can we make our jobs even more attractive to people and also retain the city workers that we have?鈥� Kitasei said. 鈥淭his is one piece of that puzzle.鈥� 

Kitasei added that a 鈥渉ealthy鈥� number of staffers applied for The Little Apple and the department expects to fill its 40 childcare seats. Anyone who doesn鈥檛 get a spot will be put on a waitlist.

There is an appetite across the country for childcare solutions that could help bring down costs for certain workers, and cities are already taking on creative fixes. 

Several already have childcare centers in municipal buildings or for city employees, including , , and , Colorado, though none of them are free like New York鈥檚. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the county school district and a local childcare center known nationally have partnered to provide childcare for the children of teachers inside unused classrooms in schools. Boone County, Missouri, is . 

In the private sector, and closed longstanding childcare centers they operated on their campuses in recent years, but efforts continue elsewhere. Patagonia has operated at its California headquarters since the 1980s, a move it argues has lowered turnover from employees who use the site by 25%. Overstock.com also has an at its Utah headquarters. Both are subsidized, not free.听

鈥淎s cities in every region of the country compete with the private sector and other municipalities to attract and retain workers and elected officials, ensuring access to childcare offers an opportunity for local governments to build a representative workforce and invest in the future of their communities,鈥� said Quincy Midthun, an outreach specialist with the Mayors Innovation Project at the High Road Strategy Center, a think tank focused on solutions to social problems.

The Little Apple, and New York City broadly, reflect a when it comes to childcare. 

The announcements of universal childcare in New York City and in the last year received an enormous amount of attention across the country. Both places took an idea that for many years was floated as a pipe dream 鈥� treating childcare similarly to public education 鈥� and turned it into reality. In New York, it鈥檚 one of the few issues that Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, and Gov. Kathy Hochul, a centrist Democrat, . 

Voters are also hungry for more solutions: In poll after poll, they assert that spending money on childcare is a . 

Emmy Liss, who heads Mamdani鈥檚 childcare office, said childcare is at a 鈥減olitical tipping point.鈥� 

鈥淲e’re in this moment where folks across all political, socioeconomic, demographic spectrums recognize that childcare is essential, that childcare is something families are struggling to access, and know that the market economics of childcare don’t work without public investment,鈥� Liss said. 鈥淲e see recognition of that.鈥�

With Little Apple, New York is testing what it looks like to commit to its promises of free care for all, but doing it first for its own employees. 

鈥淚f we are asking folks to report to work in person in parts of the city where childcare is expensive, as it is all over the city, I think that we have to recognize that childcare is an important part of how we keep people in the workforce,鈥� Liss said. 

Mamdani and Hochul have been working to make childcare universally available to children in the city through a phased rollout set to conclude in four years. For 2-year olds, the mayor announced that will be available in the fall in four largely low-income areas of the city. Another 12,000 are planned for 2027. For 3-year-olds, about 2,000 new seats will be added in the fall, as well. The city has an existing universal childcare program for 4-year-olds. 

Universal childcare as Mamdani envisions it will cover kids ages 6 weeks to 5 years with a price tag of about $6 billion annually, making it the most expensive pillar of his affordability agenda. Mamdani is expected to push to fund the program with a tax increase on the wealthy, a strategy Hochul for, though the state is . Mamdani has not yet unveiled what his universal childcare program would look like for infants and young toddlers.

How New York City鈥檚 program rolls out and its sustainability are being closely watched by proponents of universal care, who argue it’s also an anti-poverty measure.

鈥淲e know that other places are watching as we try different things out, including the work at the Little Apple,鈥� Liss said.

In New York City, 21% of working parents experienced some kind of childcare hardship in 2024 that forced them to forgo care or use inadequate care, particularly families living in poverty, single mothers and Black parents, from Robin Hood, an anti-poverty organization, and Columbia University鈥檚 Center on Poverty and Social Policy.听

An average of 3,400 2- and 3-year-olds were pushed into poverty between 2022 and 2024 specifically due to the cost of childcare, a from the same organizations found. An estimated 4,100 2- and 3-year-olds would be lifted out of poverty each year if they had access to universal 2-K and 3-K education. That would reduce poverty for this age group .听

Rebecca Bailin, the executive director of the parent organizing group New Yorkers United for Child Care, said the problem has reached such a fever pitch that thousands of parents started to organize around the issue in 2023 and helped push the agenda that was central to Mamdani鈥檚 election. 

Bailin, who has a 1-year-old, said she can now depend on a 3-K program when her child turns 3 and likely a 2-K program, as well 鈥� a savings of about $100,000. The 2-K program Mamdani is rolling out will also be full-day care rather than partial-day care that wraps up around 2 p.m. like the existing 3-K program, addressing a top ask from parents.

鈥淧eople are stoked,鈥� Bailin said. 鈥淧eople feel like they can stay in the city.鈥� 

The Little Apple is a small part of the larger effort, but, 鈥渋f we want to retain people, we have to do this,鈥� Bailin said. 

鈥淭his is something we want to see scaled. If city workers can’t afford to live here, that鈥檚 a real problem,鈥� she continued. 鈥淭his is really critical and we need this for everybody.鈥� 

was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of .

The law鈥檚 passage followed nearly two decades of groundwork and an eight-year advocacy campaign led by Let鈥檚 Grow Kids, a local organization focused on building broad public and political support for childcare reform. The mission? To achieve high-quality, affordable childcare for the whole state. 

A from New America chronicles the years of advocacy and organizing that paved the way for Vermont to pass Act 76, including the incremental legislative strategy that developed bipartisan support; efforts to build a coalition of stakeholders; and the strategic pivots and political organizing that were instrumental in passing the law. By recounting Vermont鈥檚 roadmap, the report鈥檚 author, Rebecca Gale, who has been covering childcare in the state for years, shares lessons learned to highlight what鈥檚 possible when it comes to state-led childcare reform. 

Here鈥檚 a look back at Gale鈥檚 reporting on some of the key actions and policy changes that have led to progress in Vermont.

While childcare has gained visibility in political campaigns, it鈥檚 more often a secondary issue, rather than a key priority for candidates. That may be starting to change. In April, Aly Richards, who led Let鈥檚 Grow Kids for nearly a decade, announced her bid for governor. In an interview with Gale, Richards discussed why the governor鈥檚 office might be the best next step for someone who knows how central quality childcare is for families 鈥� and states 鈥� to thrive.

Let鈥檚 Grow Kids, a nonprofit organization formed in 2015 to improve Vermont鈥檚 childcare infrastructure, sunset its operations in October 2025. According to its CEO, it was always intended to be dismantled after a decade, and the sunset strategy was critical to its success in spurring change. Here鈥檚 an inside look at how the organization鈥檚 efforts drove progress that led the state to make childcare more accessible and affordable, and why the time-sensitive nature of Let鈥檚 Grow Kids was key to its success.

Act 76, a law which passed in Vermont in 2023, has been a game changer for many of the state鈥檚 childcare providers, offering a notable financial boost. For some, it鈥檚 doubled their income. The law, which was designed to increase access to high-quality childcare for families and to support the state鈥檚 early care and education workforce, has had a number of successes in its first year of implementation. Here鈥檚 a look at how family childcare providers in the state have been impacted.

In June 2023, Vermont鈥檚 legislature overrode Republican Gov. Phil Scott鈥檚 veto to approve a number of state-wide priorities, including $125 million to shore up its childcare infrastructure. The state鈥檚 successful effort followed more than a decade of advocacy and grassroots organizing focused on strengthening its childcare system. The law, , expanded childcare subsidies to reach more families and increased wages for providers. Supporters view Vermont鈥檚 approach as a national model for expanding affordable, accessible child care and strengthening the workforce.

In June 2023, Vermont鈥檚 Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill to strengthen the state鈥檚 childcare system, but even after the governor鈥檚 veto, the state legislature had sufficient support to consider an override. Richards, CEO of Let鈥檚 Grow Kids, said the decision to veto could be traced back to a campaign promise not to raise taxes. Without the payroll tax increase, the program could not afford to pay providers more. 鈥淭he Governor agrees childcare is essential but won鈥檛 raise taxes. Those two things cannot live together. The solution is public investment. We know this is hard work. That is why we have a bipartisan movement. We are making hard choices together, but we are doing so responsibly,鈥� Richard said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, many states across the U.S. were navigating childcare setbacks. But in May 2021, after years of advocacy and organizing around strengthening childcare, Vermont passed , key legislation to reform childcare in the state. Despite the groundswell of political will for the program, Vermont still faces major funding hurdles. Gale offers a look into the state鈥檚 progress and challenges.

This mismatch between families鈥� current realities and ideal scenarios begins early 鈥� as soon as their children are born, when the parental leave they are able to take is often less time than they want. 

It may not be altogether surprising that parents in the United States are not satisfied with their leave, care and work options. After all, it is one of the only developed nations that a national paid-leave program for new parents, and in this country is unaffordable and inaccessible to many families. 

Still, these findings add an important dimension to the conversation about raising children in America: The survey is nationally representative and the largest-of-its-kind, reaching about 5,500 parents and primary caregivers with children from birth to age 5, including nearly 3,000 parents with household income below 200% of the federal poverty level or about $66,000 or less for a family of four. 

But it鈥檚 more than that, said Alyson Silkowski, senior policy adviser at the New Practice Lab, a team focused on improving economic outcomes for American families with young children, and one of the authors of the report. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot we know about what鈥檚 not working,鈥� Silkowski said of earlier data and surveys on families. 鈥淲e were keen to add to this conversation about parenthood in America 鈥� what it is parents actually want as they think about these early years.鈥�

The simplest answer to what parents want, they found, is more time and more money. 

Nearly three in four parents said they want more quality time with their children, such as playing, being outside and traveling. Instead, they feel much of their 鈥渇ree鈥� time is spent doing housework such as cooking and cleaning. These findings hold across income levels, geography, race and ethnicity.

More than half of parents 鈥� 55% 鈥� said they wanted more time off with their child after they were born, and that鈥檚 true for both moms and dads. 

鈥淣either are getting what they want,鈥� Silkowski noted. 

Priscilla Welsh, a mom of two living in a suburb of Denver, lost her job while pregnant with her first child a few years ago after the company that employed her went out of business. When their son was born, Welsh was not working, and her husband, who is self-employed, 鈥渢ook a pause鈥� from work to be at home with his family, she shared. 

鈥淚t was a rougher period of very tight finances with our firstborn,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou want to snuggle your newborn and feel relaxed, but it was top of mind for me 鈥� how little money we had.鈥�

When Welsh had their second child, in 2025, her husband was able to take advantage of Colorado鈥檚 state paid parental leave program, which was approved by voters in 2020 and became available to families in early 2024. He was able to take 12 weeks of paid leave to be at home with his wife, toddler and newborn son, which Welsh described as 鈥渁mazing.鈥� 

As for money, the New Practice Lab found that financial concerns seem to be leading families to choose work and childcare arrangements that do not reflect their preferences. 

Nearly nine in 10 parents said they want to work some amount, including 91% of dads and 85% of moms, but 75% said their current work arrangement is not one they want. 

Welsh has not returned to the workforce since she lost her job during her first pregnancy, but she would like to if she can find the right position, she said. Ideally, she鈥檇 work one day a week in an event-planning role. She loves the challenge-and-reward cycle of paid work, and she also thinks it would be good for her as a parent. 

鈥淚 want to miss them,鈥� she said of her sons, who are 2.5 years and 10 months old. 鈥淸Working] would help me miss them and be a better mom when I鈥檓 around them.鈥�

She added: 鈥溾�淏eing a mom is just one challenge after another after another. But there鈥檚 no big reward. It鈥檚 like, 鈥楶otty training is over!鈥� But no, potty training is never over.鈥� 

In her paid jobs of the past, Welsh would work really hard to complete a task or a project, then get appreciation and acknowledgement for it, she said 鈥� 鈥渞ather than being a parent, where you鈥檙e never finished.鈥� She thinks that returning to the labor force would 鈥渟tretch鈥� her in a good way.

The main reason she isn鈥檛 working now is because she isn鈥檛 looking 鈥� because she doesn鈥檛 think that what she is seeking is even out there. 

鈥淧art of me just doesn鈥檛 believe it exists, or that I鈥檇 be paid high enough that it would be worth my time,鈥� she said. 

Many moms 鈥� and some dads 鈥� with young children seem to share Welsh鈥檚 desire for more flexible, part-time work. 

Of the parents who said they prefer to work, 30% of moms and 64% of dads said they want to work full-time, compared to 28% of moms and 15% of dads who want flexible work and 25% of moms and 12% of dads who want part-time work.听

About a third of respondents said they preferred to care for their children themselves in their ideal scenario, while 19% wanted a combination of care, 18% wanted another parent to do the caregiving, 15% wanted formal settings, 11% wanted a relative or friend, and 5% wanted a nanny or sitter.听

鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 a single solution that crossed the 50% threshold,鈥� noted Amira Choueiki Boland, chief of staff at the New Practice Lab and an author of the report.

Boland also acknowledged that many families seem to have modest expectations for what can change about their circumstances 鈥� whether it鈥檚 more parental leave or more satisfying work and childcare arrangements. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e conditioned to what we think is possible,鈥� Boland said, recalling how 鈥渁stounded鈥� she was to observe the system of support in place for colleagues who took parental leave when she worked in Canada. 鈥淸We should be] opening up our aperture to what other societies have figured out to make this work better.鈥�

In 2025, one-third of states had a waitlist or a freeze on applications for childcare assistance for most families, through the Child Care and Development Block Grant, according to new data published in a from the National Women鈥檚 Law Center.听

The number of states with a waitlist or freeze had increased from the prior year 鈥� from 13 in 2024 to 17 in 2025. But perhaps more concerning, said Karen Schulman, the center鈥檚 senior director of state childcare policy, is the total number of children on those waitlists. 

Between February 2024 and February 2025, the number of children on state childcare waitlists nearly doubled, to 225,000, according to the NWLC, which collected data from state childcare administrators across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. 

Those waitlists only grew as the months wore on. By the second half of 2025, more than 400,000 children were on waitlists in those states, marking a 78% increase from February. In the months since the data was collected, at least five more states, plus Washington, D.C., have implemented waitlists, and two more began freezing intake, according to NWLC. 

鈥淎 range of factors are pulling at states,鈥� Schulman said, 鈥渟o you have more families needing help but a strain on resources that provide that help.鈥� 

Some states are struggling to adjust to the end of pandemic-era funding, the last of which in September 2024, and many states are trying to balance tight budgets while also planning ahead for federal funding cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, she explained. Meanwhile, rising costs have changed many families鈥� financial circumstances, and more may be seeking out assistance. 

Plus, Schulman said, some states have increased the reimbursement rates paid to providers in an attempt to get more of them to participate in the subsidy program; that has redirected some of the dedicated funds for the program.  

It鈥檚 not a surprise that the CCDBG program, which is the main source of federal support for families struggling to afford childcare, is failing to reach everyone who qualifies for it. As of this year, it is to be serving only about one in six of all eligible children, due to inadequate funding. 

While the 400,000 children on waitlists make up a small slice of the total population of eligible children, that number is significant because it represents the families who have expressed a need for the benefit and are being denied it or told it will be delayed, Schulman explained. She also noted that the number of families seeking help is very likely underestimated because of complexities with data tracking. California maintains waitlists at the local level, rather than at the state level; Colorado has waitlists in some counties and frozen intake in others; and Georgia, although it doesn鈥檛 use the term 鈥渇rozen intake,鈥� effectively has a freeze in place since it only serves families meeting priority criteria. 

Whether it鈥檚 a waitlist or a freeze, “There are tremendous impacts for a family who is waiting for assistance,鈥� Schulman said. 

While families are waiting for a childcare subsidy, they may have to stretch their budgets to pay for care out of pocket. That could mean putting off other bills, such as rent and utilities, or struggling to afford food. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e just meeting their basic needs if they have to pay for childcare themselves,鈥� Schulman said. 鈥淭hey might have to patch together unstable arrangements that could fall apart at the last minute and put their job in jeopardy. They may not be able to go to work at all, which could put them in even greater financial straits.鈥�

All of these outcomes, she said, could have impacts on the family鈥檚 future financial, emotional and physical health. 

Meanwhile, early care and education programs in low-income areas, where many families rely on subsidies to afford childcare, may face another set of repercussions. They could end up cutting already-low staff wages, Schulman said, or go out of business, putting their enrolled families in a bind. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 just a ripple effect throughout the whole community, affecting the economy of the community, the workforce of the community, whole neighborhoods,鈥� Schulman said. 

Kim Kofron, executive director of early childhood education at Children at Risk, a Texas-based statewide advocacy organization, said that one of the challenges is that families who join a waitlist may incorrectly believe that they鈥檒l soon circulate off it. 

Anecdotally, Kofron said, she hears that waitlists in Texas are about two years long. (The state had more than 110,000 children on its waitlist as of February 2025, according to the NWLC.)

鈥淒o they patch together some type of childcare with neighbors and friends? Do they go to a subpar childcare program because that鈥檚 what they can afford? Or do they turn down the job because 鈥� it鈥檚 cheaper to not work and not pay for childcare?鈥� Kofron said, outlining the options for waitlisted families. 

She added: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of questions right now from providers of, 鈥業s it worth it? Is it worth taking subsidies when I can鈥檛 get more kids off the waitlist?鈥欌��

These outcomes are not theoretical for RB Fast, founder of Westwood Academy, an early care and education program in Denver. 

She remembers receiving an email in fall 2024 notifying her that one of the counties she serves was . (In Colorado, waiting lists and freezes are decided at the county level.)

鈥淚 really thought it would be a couple of months,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was not ready for it to be semi-permanent and extended the way it has been.鈥�

Soon, she learned that two more counties would also be implementing a freeze. 

Back then, Fast鈥檚 program, which is licensed for 30 slots, was fully enrolled. She estimates that about two-thirds of those families paid with subsidies. Today, her program is underenrolled, with 22 children, and only three of those families pay with subsidies 鈥� two got in before the freeze began and the third is a child living with a foster family who was granted a temporary subsidy. 

For the remaining families, some manage OK, but others scramble each month, sending panicked emails asking if they can pay late or use a friend鈥檚 credit card for this month鈥檚 tuition. 鈥淵ou can tell they鈥檙e juggling to try to get tuition paid,鈥� Fast said.

She has also seen firsthand the way some families pull together substandard childcare arrangements in the absence of public assistance. Fast knows of a family that had to start leaving their toddler with the great-grandmother while the parents go to work. 

鈥淚鈥檓 sure she loves that child very much 鈥� but at 80, are you in place to give an optimal environment to a 2-year-old?鈥� said Fast, noting the level of attention and activity a toddler requires. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about an inconvenience for one family or a handful of families,鈥� she said of the waitlists. 鈥淚t affects employers, extended families [and] children.鈥�

Fast is in the process of opening her second location, in a nearby suburb of Denver. That program will not be accepting childcare subsidies, she said. Nor will any future program she opens. 

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 feel worth it to me,鈥� she said. 

Despite having room to serve more children, Middletown day care owner Peggy Fuentes often has to turn away families in desperate need of care. Each of her toddler classrooms has 10 students 鈥� the state caps class sizes for that age group at 12 鈥� but to fill the remaining seats, she鈥檇 have to hire another employee. That鈥檚 because a decades-old state regulation says day care classrooms have to have one adult for every five children between 18 and 36 months old.

With operating costs climbing across the board, , Fuentes said it simply isn鈥檛 feasible to pay another salary to accommodate just two more children.

鈥淚 have an inventory of childcare spots that I鈥檓 reluctant to use because it is cost prohibitive,鈥� said Fuentes, owner of On My Way Early Learning and Childcare Center, which serves around 240 children under 13.

New York state has some of the strictest staffing requirements in the country 鈥� stricter, in fact, than New York City鈥檚. As state leaders allocate billions of dollars to address the childcare shortage in this year鈥檚 budget, a new state law could ease those requirements and unlock new day care seats at no additional cost to providers 鈥� but only if the state agency that oversees childcare decides to act on it.  

In December, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation eliminating a provision that has prohibited the state Office of Children and Family Services from relaxing childcare staffing ratios. The new law leaves it to the agency to actually change the ratios; if it did so, the same number of workers could care for more children.  

State Senator James Skoufis, who introduced the bill in 2024, told New York Focus that adjusting the ratios is 鈥渕ore critical than ever鈥� amid the state鈥檚 ongoing efforts to scale up its childcare sector and provide more affordable care to working parents.

Childcare advocates who oppose the change are concerned having the same number of staff supervising more children would increase the risk of accidents and injuries and fail to address a root cause of the state鈥檚 childcare crisis: low wages for workers.

Supporters counter that looser ratios are consistent with set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a professional membership organization that promotes high-quality early childhood education, and that alignment with the group鈥檚 guidance would offer flexibility to providers who already operate with razor-thin profit margins.

So far, OCFS has not indicated whether it plans to update the regulations. In a statement provided to New York Focus, OCFS spokesperson Daniel Marans said the agency is 鈥渃urrently assessing the viability of the requested ratio change, with the goal of supporting childcare providers without compromising our commitment to child safety.鈥� The law does not impose a deadline for OCFS to make the switch.

More than 60 percent of New York鈥檚 census tracts are classified as a 鈥渃hildcare desert,鈥� meaning that there are three or more children under 5 waiting for every available slot, according to the . Meanwhile, more than 16,000 children are specifically as a result of staffing shortages that have led programs to operate under capacity. While that鈥檚 not necessarily related to staffing ratios, some think easing them could help address the shortage.

鈥淲e can provide more resources to counties and to providers all we want, but if we don鈥檛 provide the very common sense flexibility that these providers require in order to effectuate creating more seats, then the money is only going to go so far,鈥� said Skoufis.

Skoufis introduced the bill after providers, including Fuentes, expressed their frustrations to lawmakers over being held to tougher ratios than their counterparts in New York City, where staffing requirements are set by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Day care providers in the five boroughs must have one staff member for every five children between 12 and 18 months and one for every six children who are 2 years old. In the rest of the state, it鈥檚 1鈥�4 and 1鈥�5, respectively. The discrepancies are even wider for older children.

Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, who sponsored the bill, believes aligning ratios with New York City could help thousands of those families access a seat without burdening providers or taxpayers with additional costs.

鈥淐hildcare providers are operating on such slim margins that they frequently worry about going out of business,鈥� Hevesi said. 鈥淲e were looking for a way to give them some breathing room in an incredibly difficult climate without costing anybody any money.鈥�

Dede Hill, vice president of policy at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, a social policy and advocacy organization, has a different perspective. 鈥淥ne thing that makes childcare in New York state so high quality is because we have low ratios 鈥� and that鈥檚 certainly not something we want to step away from,鈥� she said. Hill is a member of the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, which advocates for universal childcare.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think staffing ratios are the solution to the tremendous issues we have related to supply,鈥� said Hill. The key is more investment in the workforce, including higher pay for childcare workers, she said.

One reason providers are facing significant financial strain is that the state鈥檚 reimbursement level for its , which covers nearly all of the cost of childcare for low- and middle-income families, isn鈥檛 enough to provide high quality care, Hill said. With providers forced to absorb the shortfall, many are unable to offer adequate wages: In 2025, the annual average salary for childcare workers in New York , lower than 96 percent of other jobs.

Fuentes, who has owned her day care center in Orange County for 17 years, said she currently has to choose between raising tuition for all children in order to pay another employee and waitlisting families even though there is ample space to serve them. If OCFS chose to align statewide staffing ratios with New York City, she said, she could enroll around 15 more children without hiring additional staff.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a childcare crisis in New York,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we can鈥檛 use our full supply of seats, then that crisis is just going to continue.鈥�

For Heidi-Jo Brandt, president of a union representing more than 8,800 providers outside New York City, the flexibility doesn鈥檛 seem worth it. Some revisions to standards may be appropriate, such as the current 1鈥�2 ratio for children under 2 in home-based care, she said, but a broader relaxing of staffing ratios could put children at risk. Research shows inadequate supervision is the main cause of injuries in childcare settings, including , , and from bottle warmers.

鈥淲hile it could have a tremendous impact statewide, our concern is always for the safety of children,鈥� said Brandt.

Some research indicates that high staff-to-child ratios and smaller group sizes are critical for children鈥檚 health, safety, and development, but data on the safety outcome of ratios like New York City鈥檚 is limited.

In recent years, as the childcare industry has reeled from a pandemic-driven dip in enrollment and rise in operating costs, have proposed loosening their childcare staffing ratios, increasing maximum group sizes, and relaxing other regulations to meet demand. Many states set ratios based on guidance from the National Association for the Education of Young Children; New York City鈥檚 ratios are roughly in line with the group鈥檚 recommendations.

Meanwhile, New York state has some of the most stringent ratios nationwide. It is that uses the restrictive ratios recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Even New York City鈥檚 staffing ratios remain stricter than those in many other states.

Skoufis first introduced the bill after then-OCFS Commissioner Suzanne Miles-Gustave informed him that aligning statewide ratios with New York City would require legislation. At the time, he said, OCFS officials 鈥渕ade it crystal clear鈥� they wanted to pursue the changes, though he鈥檚 less clear on their position today.

In a January letter to current OCFS Commissioner DaMia Harris-Madden, Skoufis argued that it is 鈥渇inancially unreasonable鈥� to require a 1鈥�5 staff-to-child ratio for 18- to 36-month-olds with a maximum group size of 12.

Hevesi said that he believes the agency should 鈥渁ct sooner rather than later鈥� given the potential benefits.

鈥淢y instinct is that there鈥檚 going to be support to look at this and see what鈥檚 appropriate 鈥� but my role was just to take the handcuffs off and now they are free to do whatever they feel is appropriate,鈥� he said.

Buffalo day care owner Emily Thrasher pointed out that New York City and state regulations differ on other aspects of childcare: The city also has more lenient classroom space requirements than the rest of the state, as well as different age group definitions that determine other regulations. For example, New York City defines a toddler as a child between 12 and 24 months old, while New York state鈥檚 definition is 18 to 36 months.

Thrasher said full alignment with New York City鈥檚 standards would allow her small business to generate hundreds of thousands of additional dollars annually. That, in turn, would enable her to serve more families.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 even imagine how much that would compound for larger day care centers,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e could help more families, open more slots, pay our staff more. 鈥� The changes seem small, but it would make the biggest difference.鈥�

This story originally appeared in , a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. .

Much of the conversation about how much and what type of screen time is appropriate for young kids is focused on the use of digital technology at home, under the purview of a child鈥檚 parents and primary caregivers. But the reality is that a of children age 5 and under spend at least part of their week in an early care and education setting, where screen time may be less visible, but is often present in some form. And when communication between parents and early educators falls short, young children may end up spending more time with screens than experts recommend 鈥� and their parents intend. 

In early learning environments, screen use varies widely, said Rebecca Parlakian, senior director of programs at Zero to Three, a nonprofit focused on early childhood development. Some settings are screen-free, while others set parameters like time limits or restricting screens for educational use only, and others allow children to watch movies or short videos for entertainment. 

鈥淒epending on who cares for your child and what the practices are, it could go the whole range,鈥� Parlakian said.

Although expert guidance around screen time has begun to move away from offering clear duration-based limits, there is still a large body of research informing best practices around children and digital media 鈥� and that research emphasizes the importance of in-person, hands-on and relational interactions for young children. But often, program staff and parents are not communicating with one another about how much or what kind of screen time a child is getting in each environment, said Kate Blocker, director of research and programs at Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development. 

鈥淲e have to acknowledge that has to apply across the contexts they鈥檙e in and is not repeated,鈥� Blocker said. 鈥淭he communication gaps are really real, I think.鈥�

Although some states are beginning to whether and how screens can be used in early care and education settings, a program鈥檚 approach to screen time is more often driven by the philosophy and preferences of its owner or director. In the absence of clear, cohesive guidelines for the field, that can be a daunting task, said LaTonya Richardson, owner and director of The Academy of Learning and Early Care, a licensed, nationally accredited family child care program in Jacksonville, Florida. 

鈥淭echnology in early childhood is not a black-and-white thing,鈥� Richardson said. 鈥淲e need clearer guidance, and we need realistic goals.鈥�

Many of the best-known early childhood advocacy and membership organizations do offer some recommendations for programs around screen use. The National Association for Family Child Care, for example, includes guidelines for 鈥渢elevision and computers鈥� in its , including limits of 30 minutes of screen time per day for children over age 2 and none for those who are under 2. But the field lacks a set of go-to guidelines that all program leaders and staff can reference, much the way that many families view the from the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Instead, Richardson said, her approach has evolved over the years as she鈥檚 learned in real-time what works well for children and what doesn鈥檛. 

Today, she and the other two teachers in her program use some technology with the 12 children they serve 鈥� who range in age from 7 months old to 5 years old 鈥� but they keep it brief and reserve it for times when a screen can add something to the learning experience. 

鈥淭echnology is used as a tool, not as a replacement for teaching,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e believe children learn best through play, conversations and movement.鈥�

When screens come out, Richardson said, they are used with intention. 

Earlier that week, one of the program鈥檚 teachers used a tablet during circle time to play short videos of a few nursery rhymes the group had recently read together. It was intended to recap the lesson and deepen the children鈥檚 understanding of the stories, Richardson said. 

One video was of Humpty Dumpty. In it, the kids could see Humpty Dumpty falling, in motion. They could watch as he cracked into several pieces. Another video was of Jack and Jill. The children were able to see Jack and Jill tumbling down the hill. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 to give them something else than we鈥檙e already doing so they can see and feel and interact in different ways when we鈥檙e using the tablet,鈥� Richardson explained. 

The older kids can also access a tablet to practice concepts like counting or the alphabet. Her staff limits this activity to five minutes at a time. 

鈥淚f a child wants to see the tablet, they know now, when they see the hourglass, 鈥楳y time is up.鈥� There鈥檚 no getting upset. They put it down and move on to the next thing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about guidance, support and making sure everyone鈥檚 clear on what the role is when it comes to using those devices.鈥�

It helps when those messages are communicated consistently across both home and school settings, Richardson added. 

At one point, she held a workshop for families to help them understand what healthy technology use looks like for young children, and to understand the trade-offs of granting their kids screen time at home. Some parents expressed that their children were getting into the car after pickup demanding a tablet, and they didn鈥檛 know how to set boundaries. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not to shame any parents,鈥� Richardson said of the workshops and resources her program provides to families. 鈥淚t鈥檚 to work with them so they can work with us.鈥�

At the Primrose School of Evergreen, a private early learning program located in the heart of Silicon Valley, parents overwhelmingly view technology as a positive, said owner Bejal Patel. 

The preschool is part of Primrose Schools, a national chain of more than 500 early care and education centers. Patel鈥檚 center is piloting a new learning app from Primrose Schools called Balanced Learning that will be made available to all programs this fall. The app was designed for children ages 3, 4 and 5 and is intended to complement the hands-on activities and lessons that children are working on in the classroom. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much external content that might be fun and flashy … but we鈥檙e trying to get kids to think critically, solve a real-world problem,鈥� said April Poindexter, head of curriculum and innovation at Primrose Schools, about the new learning app. 鈥淪o it requires active engagement.鈥�

One experience children may have on the app, she said, would reinforce a learning unit on gardening and pollinators. In the classroom, children may learn about gardening and taking care of the earth. Outside, they may plant seeds and tend to the school鈥檚 real garden. In the app, they can read further about pollinators or design their own pollinator garden based on information found in the app. 

Another app experience, Poindexter said, offers children an opportunity to view short videos about age-appropriate social challenges, such as starting a new school, and then use a handheld mirror to observe their own facial expressions. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 all designed to be short, sweet, brief and very purposeful to what they鈥檙e learning,鈥� Poindexter said. 

Primrose centers, she added, do not use any digital media for entertainment and do not introduce any children under age 3 to screens. 

Patel, the owner of the Primrose location in Silicon Valley, said that aligns with her school鈥檚 approach. 

鈥淪creens don鈥檛 enter classrooms until preschool,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nfants and toddlers 鈥� that鈥檚 non-negotiable. At this age, we know there鈥檚 no app that can replicate what a caring adult and a sensory bin can do for a 2-year-old鈥檚 development. When children reach preschool age, that鈥檚 where technology enters, but very carefully.鈥�

Children may use the Balanced Learning app up to twice a week, for no more than 15 minutes, Poindexter noted. 

Patel acknowledged that the transition away from the app can be a challenge for children and staff, but noted that, 鈥渨e鈥檙e fighting neurochemistry, not kids.鈥� 

Children get a two-minute wrap-up cue on the app. Patel鈥檚 staff also offer verbal reminders and try to empower the children by letting them turn the tablet off and put it away themselves. Sometimes the kids try to bargain for more, Patel said. They鈥檒l say, 鈥淚 just want to finish this,鈥� Patel said. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e given our teachers certain things to say, like, 鈥業 know it鈥檚 hard to stop,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淲e always try to positively redirect a child into doing something else.鈥�

Sometimes there is a disconnect between that approach and what happens at home. Some parents, Patel said, may give their child an hour or two to watch whatever they want. 

鈥淲e do sometimes get worried that we have to start all over again [when] Monday hits,鈥� Patel said. 

Still, despite these challenges, Patel feels strongly that children in the program benefit from having some exposure to technology, rather than none at all. 

鈥淭he best thing is to not pretend that this thing doesn鈥檛 exist,鈥� she said. 

She offered an analogy. If a child is not allowed to have any cake on his birthday for the first 10 years of his life, and then is given a cake on his 10th birthday, he might be inclined to eat the whole thing. Whereas if he鈥檇 had one slice of cake each year on his birthday, he may have learned how to consume the sugar in moderation.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e teaching the kid to learn things in small quantities,鈥� she said. 鈥淯sing the iPad or screen time for smaller chunks is better than not having limits.鈥�

Blocker, of Children and Screens, offered a counterpoint. 

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to acknowledge there鈥檚 no evidence that a lack of technology is bad,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no research to indicate that not having it in there is a problem.鈥�

Blocker and other child development experts pointed out that screens are not the primary risk here. It鈥檚 actually what screens are replacing 鈥� hands-on learning, real-world experiences, free play and close caregiver interactions 鈥� that is the bigger concern. 

鈥淓very minute a child is spending on a device isn鈥檛 spent on serve-and-return or physical development,鈥� Blocker said. 鈥淩esearch is pretty clear young kids don鈥檛 learn as well from screens. What is the screen taking away? That鈥檚 one primary challenge: making sure it鈥檚 not displacing vital developmental inputs.鈥�

Parlakian, at Zero to Three, would not necessarily suggest that technology should be absent from early care and education programs altogether, but noted that when it is present, it must be used thoughtfully and intentionally. That kind of approach, though, places the burden on already-overextended program leaders and teachers. 

There may be value in children seeing a concept they’re learning about come to life in a video. Children may understand the book 鈥淭he Very Hungry Caterpillar鈥� better if they get to pair it with a video of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, she said. But there is no place, Parlakian feels, for screen use that is strictly for entertainment in early care and education programs. 

鈥淟ife is entertainment for young children,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here should be plenty to explore, experiment and solve in their setting.鈥�

Affordable preschool options are few and far between for Hannah Miller, a Waik艒loa mom of a 2- and 4-year-old. 

For more than three years, Miller has relied on a free early learning program run out of a church in Waimea. 

The program has taught her two children new skills, like counting to 10 in Hawaiian and socializing with other kids, Miller said, while also introducing her to a community of other parents. But the program is set to close in the fall as federal funding runs dry for up to 17 early learning sites across the state.

鈥淲e feel like we have nothing for him, so he鈥檚 just going to be home with us,鈥� Miller said about her son, who still has another year before he鈥檚 eligible for kindergarten. 鈥淲e鈥檙e heartbroken.鈥� 

Across the state, early learning programs are struggling to stay afloat amid potential federal funding cuts and reluctance from state lawmakers to fund preschool and child care initiatives this year. While the state faces an ambitious goal to provide preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032, the future of the initiative remains unclear as one of its champions, Lt Gov. Sylvia Luke, takes a  amid a state investigation.   

Most early learning bills this year requested state funding to build the teacher workforce or keep child care and preschool programs afloat. But nearly all the proposals died as lawmakers faced significant budget constraints from federal funding cuts and Kona low storm damages amounting to $1 billion mid-way through the session. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e supposed to vote their priorities, and it was just not a priority this year,鈥� said Malia Tsuchiya, early childhood policy and advocacy coordinator at Hawai驶i Children鈥檚 Action Network. 

But failing to invest in early learning programs could have significant consequences for working families and the state鈥檚 economy as a whole, Tsuchiya said. High-quality preschool and child care not only prepare kids for school, she said, but they also allow parents to reenter the workforce and maintain stable employment. 

While Hawai驶i runs some of the highest quality public preschools in the nation, it ranks among the worst states for 4-year-old children鈥檚 access to these programs, according to a  from the National Institute for Early Education Research. 

Coming off a challenging legislative session, advocates worry that momentum around universal preschool could further stall as Luke steps away from office. Luke led lawmakers in appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars for  in 2022, but investments may slow unless lawmakers continue to make early learning access a top priority, Tsuchiya said. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to need our lawmakers to support that investment,鈥� Tsuchiya said. 鈥淥ur priorities shouldn鈥檛 come and go because one person goes.鈥� 

Funding Shortfalls 

O驶ahu parent Danielle Alefosio faced multiple roadblocks when she tried to enroll her 4-year-old daughter in preschool last summer. Some programs had waitlists, she said, while others required $200 to $300 deposits that her family couldn鈥檛 afford. 

But Alefosio found another option: Parkway Village Preschool in Kapolei, which opened as the state鈥檚  last year. Since starting school, Alefosio said, she鈥檚 seen her daughter progress from speaking in gibberish to talking in full sentences and develop a love for learning. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e top tier,鈥� she said. 

Parkway Village is one of two preschool-only charter schools in the state, which serve a total of roughly 180 students and are tuition-free. The two schools receive $171,000 per classroom in state funds, but advocates say it鈥檚 not enough to run high-quality programs and entice others to join the charter school model. 

Providers need roughly $275,000 to $285,000 to run a charter preschool classroom, said Caroline Hayashi, president of the Waik墨k墨 Community Center. The center works as a nonprofit partner with , which serves nearly 100 students. 

Charter schools can work with their nonprofit partners to raise money to cover funding gaps, Hayashi said. But it鈥檚 not possible for nonprofits to cover such significant shortfalls, she said, and insufficient funding from the state could discourage other people from starting their own charter preschools. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 more sites where this could really work,鈥� Hayashi said. 鈥淏ut in order to make that a reality, the key is making it more financially sustainable.鈥� 

Parkway Village Preschool faces a budget shortfall of roughly $100,000 per classroom 鈥� or $400,000 for the entire year, said Trisha Kajimura, vice president at Parents and Children Together, which serves as the preschool鈥檚 nonprofit partner.  would have helped to close the gap by raising state funding to $250,000 per classroom, which is closer to the true costs of operating charter preschools, Kajimura said. 

The bill passed through the House but died when it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Donna Kim. The bill did not have an appropriation amount, although the Hawai驶i State Public Charter School Commission estimated the proposal would cost $790,000 in addition to the existing funds charter preschools receive. 

Funding shortfalls are also affecting early learning programs targeting low-income, rural communities.

A handful of nonprofits across the state run a network of family and child interaction learning centers, which provide free educational programs to infants and toddlers and their caregivers. The programs have historically relied on roughly $20 million from the federal Native Hawaiian Education program. 

But one of the primary nonprofits, Partners in Development Foundation, is in the last few months of its three-year grant, and there have been no opportunities to reapply for federal funding, said president and chief executive officer Shawn Kanaiaupuni.

Nonprofit leaders like Kanaiaupuni asked state lawmakers to fill the funding gap earlier this year, warning that  could close if the federal government stopped awarding grants through the Native Hawaiian Education program.  would have set aside an unspecified amount of state funding to support the programs, but the bill died when it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate Education Committee. 

Partners in Development was able to find other sources of funding to keep 19 of its locations open, but it plans on closing 17 family learning sites in the fall, including all four of its Kaua驶i programs. The closures will affect more than 1,000 children and 1,000 caregivers, Kanaiaupuni said, although she鈥檚 hopeful some county funding will come through to save four sites on Maui. 

鈥淗ow much can our families sustain?鈥� Kanaiaupuni said. 鈥淭he impact is really devastating.鈥� 

Other nonprofits operating similar family learning programs are able to keep their sites open for now, but the future of federal funding remains uncertain. The proposed version of the 2027 federal budget eliminates funding for the Native Hawaiian Education program entirely, and there鈥檚 no guarantee that the federal education department will award grants in a timely manner even if Congress appropriates the money, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge impact on our communities,鈥� Tokuda said. 鈥淲e need to continue to make sure that this funding is available and that it鈥檚 awarded and it gets to where it needs to go.鈥� 

Pre-K Needs A Champion

Despite a tumultuous session for early learning programs, Tsuchiya said she鈥檚 still optimistic the state can reach its goal of providing preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032. The state has renovated and constructed 81 preschool classrooms in the past three years and plans on opening another 26 this summer, according to the School Facilities Authority, the agency tasked with building new preschools.  

As of October, the state projected it needed to build  to provide universal access to preschool by 2032. 

But the state needs continued investments in preschool expansion to maintain its progress and hit its 2032 goal, Tsuchiya said. While the School Facilities Authority requested $31 million for preschool construction, lawmakers set aside $20 million in the most recent version of the budget. 

Early learning providers have also raised concerns that the teacher workforce can鈥檛 keep up with the state鈥檚 demand for new classrooms.  aimed to address the problem by setting aside state funds for an apprenticeship program, which would allow prospective teachers to work in early learning classrooms and get paid while earning their early educator credentials. 

鈥淢y desire here is to focus more on the workforce pipeline to make sure we have these early childhood education workers ready to fill these buildings as they get built out,鈥� said Rep. Andrew Garrett, who introduced the bill. He estimates the program would cost roughly $8 million. 

The bill failed to pass out of conference committee.

Moving forward, it鈥檚 critical for preschool access to remain a top priority for state officials, said Kerrie Urosevich, executive director of Early Childhood Action Strategy. While Luke has pushed for the aggressive expansion of preschool access in recent years, Urosevich said, she鈥檚 worried progress could stall unless the governor or next lieutenant governor continues to champion the issue. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it has enough momentum on its own,鈥� Urosevich said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to require a champion.鈥�

This was originally published on .

But now, in the wake of a new focus among Ohio lawmakers on supposed fraud in the state鈥檚 childcare system, they are on the verge of ditching the idea altogether. A under consideration would require providers to be paid based on attendance rather than enrollment as they are by parents who pay out of pocket.

In December, conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video claiming to uncover widespread fraud in Minnesota鈥檚 childcare program, particularly among daycare centers run by Somali American residents. The video went viral and reached federal officials, and the Trump administration cited it as motivation to pursue an and various efforts to restrict federal childcare funding. Despite the video offering no verified evidence of fraud 鈥� and the fact that the state was several cases of fraud in its childcare system 鈥� some states have responded by intensifying their focus on supposed fraud. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott agencies to launch investigations into childcare fraud, while Idaho鈥檚 Department of Health and Welfare heightened reviews of funding. (The reviews found of providers guilty of any wrongdoing.)

Shirley鈥檚 video sparked an immediate reaction in Ohio, according to Tamara Lunan, a childcare organizer with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The state has the Somali American population, just behind Minnesota. in Columbus, Ohio claimed centers were receiving public funding for nonexistent children even though evidence at least two of those claims. According to the at The Ohio State University, just 0.43% of all the providers who accept vouchers through the state鈥檚 publicly funded childcare program were found to be misusing funds in 2025. In a of 124 complaints sent to the state鈥檚 Department of Children and Youth last year, the agency found no evidence of fraud in 100 of them.

In January, Ohio lawmakers two proposals 鈥� House Bills 647 and 649 鈥� they said were aimed at combatting fraud in the state鈥檚 publicly funded childcare system.  

Marquita McClendon, who has operated a childcare program in Cincinnati since 2023, acknowledged that fraud exists. 鈥淏ut I feel like the systems that we already have in place already do the job necessary,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e changing laws over an unsubstantiated claim. It鈥檚 just beyond me.鈥�

The state made some changes ahead of implementing the new enrollment-based payment system that have led to sacrifices for providers. It a requirement for counties to use presumptive eligibility, which allows families to receive childcare vouchers if they already qualify for another program like food stamps, and allows parents to enroll immediately once they get a new job, rather than waiting weeks for their paperwork to be approved. Some providers accept children into their programs during that interim period anyway, Lunan said, but often aren鈥檛 paid for all of that time. The state also reimbursement rates for some types of in-home providers and increased the threshold for children to qualify as full time, which allows providers to be reimbursed at a higher rate. 

鈥淭here were things taken away from us,鈥� McClendon pointed out. With those reductions, she鈥檚 making $10,000 less each month, she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the red.鈥� The loss of revenue has meant she can鈥檛 buy new equipment for the children in her care or do field trips this summer as she normally would. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 run an effective program,鈥� she said.

If providers were paid based on enrollment, it would help them weather children鈥檚 absences for illness or snowstorms, 鈥渢hings that providers can鈥檛 possibly be able to plan for when they鈥檙e making their budgets,鈥� Lunan said. It 鈥渨ould help to stabilize the programs.鈥� Instead, 鈥淧roviders are hemorrhaging income based on these changes,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 killing their bottom line.鈥�

Reversing the decision to pay based on enrollment is just one of the changes included in the legislative proposals Ohio lawmakers have put forward in the name of fighting fraud this year. Some others have since been toned down or removed. initially that would have given the state鈥檚 Department of Children and Youth the power to cut off funding or suspend a license for any provider merely suspected of fraud, waste or misuse of dollars without a hearing. That language has since from the bill; now those actions can be taken if 鈥渆vidence demonstrates鈥� that a provider knowingly engaged in fraud or misuse of funds. But providers remain concerned about lawmakers giving the attorney general more power to prosecute perceived fraud, which in the bill. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to see childcare providers get penalized because the state made an overpayment to them,鈥� Lunan said. Both overpayments and underpayments are included when states calculate their payment error rates, and those can be due to the state government鈥檚 error, not providers acting with ill intent. Her organization is pushing for the state to create a committee made up of childcare providers that could distinguish between clerical errors and actual, intentional fraud. 

The original proposal for , introduced by Republican lawmaker Josh Williams, would have mandated the installation of cameras in all childcare programs that receive government funding to 鈥渁llow visual inspections in real time,鈥� . It would have given the Department of Children and Youth the ability to view the footage at any time. McClendon pointed out that she has diaper changing stations in her classrooms. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way to protect my children鈥檚 privacy,鈥� she said, calling the idea 鈥渁 bit extreme.鈥�

While that idea has since been abandoned, lawmakers have adjusted the bill to facial recognition for children who attend programs that receive public funding. Such technology won鈥檛 work on young children, particularly infants, given how rapidly their faces are developing and changing, McClendon and Lunan pointed out. McClendon also noted the challenge of keeping kids still long enough to take a photograph. Lunan pointed out that there is already an existing mandate for programs to have an attendance system in place that takes pictures of parents when they sign children in.

An made to that bill the storing of photos of the children. But many parents are still opposed, Lunan said: a against mandating facial recognition has been signed by nearly 900 people. 

Lawmakers are also reducing the time given for allowing a child to be checked in retroactively, if their attendance was originally missed, from 30 days to seven. 鈥淭hat would be a tremendous hardship,鈥� Lunan said, on both providers and the parents who are the ones who have to go into the system and fix the problem.  

The legislation calls for spending up to over two years on data analytics to detect patterns of fraud or abuse. The facial recognition proposal alone would be 鈥渆xpensive for the state and providers, diverting scarce public dollars and provider time away from care itself and toward unnecessary surveillance infrastructure,鈥� said Ali Smith, senior project coordinator at Policy Matters Ohio, . Lunan agreed. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 need funds to come out of childcare,鈥� she said. What Ohio childcare providers need instead, she said, is more funding, not less. 鈥淧roviders are not defrauding the system. They are barely breaking even 鈥� most providers are in the red,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he conversation really needs to shift from fraud to funding.鈥�

The anti-fraud bills 鈥渨ould just destabilize childcare, or destabilize it further, because it鈥檚 already unstable,鈥� Lunan said. 

New Mexico has recently launched the United States鈥� first model, followed by Vermont and that are working to build capacity to support similar systems.

A national spotlight has also been cast on New York City鈥檚 efforts after promises on the campaign trail from Mayor Zohran Mamdani to expand free care for children as by the end of his term in late 2029.

The conversation is growing at several different levels, with some states focusing on pre-K access and others looking into providing care even earlier. But, most are grappling with major roadblocks in scaling larger 鈥� and universal 鈥� initiatives, including questions on funding models and accountability.

Shael Polakow-Suransky, a former chief academic officer at the New York City Department of Education, and the current president of Bank Street College of Education, spoke with 社区黑料 about childcare trends and what it鈥檒l look like to create higher quality programs as states look to expand access.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

To kick off our conversation with the idea that there is a lot of movement around early childcare right now and accessibility to it, what are we seeing across the country and what are states investing in or considering legislation around?

We’re not getting any help right now from the federal government. During the Biden administration, it was the opposite. There were federal funds flowing to states specifically to do this work, and that’s part of how you got some really interesting, innovative stuff happening in states not that long ago.

Vermont is one of, I think, only two states now that have a really strong program to for early educators. Kentucky guaranteed for childcare workers that their own children or deeply subsidized care. 

New Mexico is one of the most interesting examples right now because in November 2025, they launched universal childcare. 

One of the things that is striking about their strategy is that they created a dedicated permanent revenue stream for it, 鈥� so it’s not conditioned on the federal government being able to support it, or an annual tax appropriation. That makes it stable in a way that’s unusual. They have also specifically said that competitive educator compensation is a goal which is really different.

D.C. is the other place that has done something similar to this. In 2018, they created a that had an explicit call around pay parity [for early care workers], and it gave people initial one time payments [up to $14,000]. Then, they created a salary scale based on educational attainment. They were also trying to push people to get the training that they needed to deliver at a high quality, and during the phase of that project, the employment in the sector grew by 7% and retention rose to over two thirds.

In most places, including New York City, early childhood folks鈥� turnover is five times the rate of what you see in K-12 settings. That turnover is a function of the low wages and and sometimes the lack of training as well, because if you’re not doing well in your job, you don’t want to stay in it.

In New York, a lot of our workforce is actually in poverty. More than half of New York’s early educators are relying on public assistance. We have more than 16,000 children statewide who can’t be served because of vacant positions and this is where we actually have state funding for childcare seats, but we don’t have people to fill those positions. So I think those models of D.C. and New Mexico are really worth looking at other states.

What about missed opportunities that aren’t being considered when lawmakers are drafting legislation or proposing new funding?

When you think about elected officials and who they’re accountable to, the most clear promise you can make is X number of seats for X communities. 

We’re going to have for 2-year-olds in New York City, 鈥� that is the thing that will stick in the minds of the public. That other layer, on quality, is harder to boil down into a sound bite.

When you create access, you could create a system that actually does damage if you don’t have quality. Quality is defined by what are the adults able to do with children once they have this time with them? We want it to be something that has real educational impacts, 鈥� and taking advantage of this incredible moment of brain development where 90% of your brain architecture is built by the time you turn 5.

What does high quality care look like? What are signs for parents to look for?

A quality learning environment for early childcare allows kids to move around freely and explore and interact with each other and with adults and the materials that are in the space, whether it’s blocks, or art supplies, or a dress up area, or a water or sand table.

In low-quality settings, a lot of times what’s happening is kids are in some way, physically restrained from moving, and this is done in the name of safety. In that low-quality setting, you don鈥檛 have enough adults, the physical layout of the space isn’t totally safe for a toddler to be wandering around and the kinds of things that are going to be interesting for that toddler to pick up and stick in their mouth are not available.

In a low-quality environment, that child is maybe sitting in a high chair or in a playpen, and there’s an iPad going that they’re looking at which is not able to interact with them and is not supporting that development. You may be keeping the child physically safe, but if they aren’t able to interact and move, their brain development is not going to progress the way it needs to.

You want to set up the physical space, and you want to have the staffing to support that flexible movement and exploration, because that is how our brains develop 鈥� through those types of interactions with people and with materials. If the person is so stressed, either because their own life is so stressful because they’re not able to make ends meet and or their work environment is so stressful because they’re understaffed and working really long hours, that connection is lost.

When we talk about opening seats across the country, what are the odds that these seats are going to be low quality care programs?

There’s been research done over the years that has looked at the quality of early childhood settings and in general, that number of really good settings are like 20 to 30% of what we have. That doesn’t mean that the other 70% are low quality 鈥� it’s a spectrum. My guess is probably only 10%, maybe 15%, fall into that low quality bucket, but there’s a lot in between that high quality and low quality that needs work.

How can states and lawmakers take more accountability when they are considering opening more spots up to ensure that it is leaning toward the highest level of care for the youngest kids, especially developmentally?

Building a living wage is the most important thing because that brings people into the workforce. It encourages people to stay in the workforce. And as people stay, they develop experience and relationships with children. You can’t do that without training. So that’s the other big piece of this, what are we doing to train people well?

From birth to 3, there’s not a requirement anywhere in the country that you have to have a teaching license to teach at that level and there can’t be that requirement given the current compensation structure. So then, what is the requirement? If you’re not going to ask people to have a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, 鈥� how do you provide them with training and support that will enable them to accelerate learning and development for children?

The goal is that you build in the resources for professional development for the existing folks who are already in the field, and then resources for people to get trained as they enter the workforce as well. 

I’ll give you one example. Bank Street has partnered with New York City during the pre-K initiative because the state actually does require a master’s degree for pre-K teachers here and that’s a relatively new requirement, so there are a lot of teachers who were working before that requirement went into place, and are now out of compliance with that law.

The city asked us at Bank Street to design something specifically for that group that would be attuned to the fact that they already have lots of knowledge and skills and they don’t need to start from the beginning. 

We created something called the Advanced Standing Program, which is a mastery based program for teachers who are already pretty experienced, and so they can do it much more quickly than a normal master’s degree. They get credit for their experience, so the cost is lower, and it’s historically been paid for partially by the city or by nonprofits where the folks are working. 

So, creating those kinds of programs that are really responsive to the real needs of folks in this workforce, as opposed to a compliance requirement that pushes a lot of people away.

There’s some examples now of universal childcare, but in most states, it is pretty limited to low-income families or at a pre-K level. So, when we’re talking about this quality issue, I want to get into equity also. Childcare programs may be getting some of the highest needs students. How does the issue of quality play a role in development and readiness by the time these students enter the K-12 system? 

The achievement gap that we see in K-12 schools between wealthy and low-income students 鈥� which is usually like a 20 or 30 point spread in achievement when you look at third grade or eighth grade test scores or high school graduation rates 鈥� is visible beginning at 18 months.

If you study toddlers, the same exact graph shows up between upper-income and low-income children. So why is that? 

We know that’s exactly that moment where language development is happening in the brain, and so if a child is sitting in front of a TV all day by themselves, or iPad or and no one’s talking to them, no one’s interacting with them, then they’re going to be really low scoring around that language development.

There’s not much that’s different between upper income and lower income children except for the fact that upper income families have much more access to quality care. If we can provide that quality care across the income spectrum, there’s a shot at closing those achievement gaps later on.

We’ve talked about New York City a little bit, and I know through several decades, there’s been a push and pull around expanding this early childhood care access under each mayor. Can you talk a little bit about the history of what New York City has tried, what’s new now under Mamdani’s proposal and whether that will be effective or not?

One of my big regrets, I was senior deputy chancellor under Mayor [Mike] Bloomberg for his third term in office, and it was around that time that we started to expand pre-K, but it was a very modest expansion. As someone who came up as an educator in middle schools and high schools, I didn’t really know what I know now about the power of early childhood. I don’t think any of us at the DOE in those days, other than folks working in the early childhood division who weren’t at the decision making table, understood how powerful the impact on educational equity is if you invest in early childhood. 

It took Mayor [Bill] de Blasio making the pre-K commitment as part of his first mayoral campaign to make that the focus for the Department of Education and for the city as a whole. They added 60,000 new seats in pre-K, then expanded pre-K as well in the second term. 

Mayor [Eric] Adams made lots of promises about working on this but really didn’t move the ball. 

What Mayor [Mamdani] campaigned on is that there’ll be free childcare for kids from birth to 5. It鈥檚 beginning with expanding the number of seats for 3-year-olds and expanding 2-year-olds. It鈥檚 a fairly modest expansion in this first year, and I think the question that will face the mayor over the rest of this term is how do you get to that larger goal where everyone has access and and how do you do it in a way that pairs access with quality? 

I think they’re off to a good start.

I want to pose the question you said Mamdani鈥檚 team will have to answer. How do states lead large scale expansion and ensure quality as they try to expand to everyone?

One of the lessons that we learned from the pre-K expansion is that you need to pay attention to the existing ecosystem and not lose capacity as you build capacity. 

One of the downsides of the pre-K expansion during de Blasio’s term was that they put a lot of the seats into public elementary schools, and the teachers became part of the UFT. They got regular salary the same way any K-12 teacher, which is great, but then the nonprofits that were running childcare programs as part of the initiative didn’t have the funding to match those salaries, and so a lot of people left the nonprofit daycare centers 鈥� and even worse, family childcare, which are small businesses run out of people’s homes that usually serve children birth to 5, were not initially included in the strategy.

We actually saw a loss of childcare seats in the birth to 3 space when some of those folks went out of business. 

I think part of the solution this time around, particularly because we’re working with younger children, is how do you support family childcare as part of this? How do you help improve the quality and the economic viability of that? 

Last question just to wrap us up. What you had talked about during your time at the NYC Department of Education with not paying attention to childcare, I think is something that was universal for lawmakers early on too. This conversation has really picked up in the last five years or so. How likely is it to continue seeing such acceleration in this movement?

I think one of the interesting things about childcare is it’s a bipartisan issue in most places in the country. 

The governor of Ohio, a Republican governor, has done massive investments in early childhood. Nebraska, Louisiana, lots of red states have really prioritized this, and the reason why is that more than three quarters of families have both parents in the workforce, so people need childcare. They need a place for their children to be. They need to be able to afford it, and they want it to be safe, and they want their children to be learning.听

From an educational equity standpoint, we need that quality in order to sort of solve our broader problems in terms of achievement gaps in our school system. 

We haven’t seen as much investment in the second Trump administration, but the first Trump administration actually saw the biggest increase in early childhood funding since the Clinton administration. Biden went even further. Those were both a Republican president and a Democratic president actively investing in this. We have Republican governors and Democratic governors actively investing in this.

This is something that really speaks to people, and so I think for that reason, we are going to continue to see new public funding flow to this. It may not come as fast as I would hope, but we’re on the trajectory in the right direction.

That began to change in 2022, when Kentucky became the first state in the country to roll out an initiative making most early childhood educators automatically eligible for childcare subsidies. 

Novel at the time, this program 鈥� which, in effect, provides free childcare to early childhood educators in licensed programs through an expansion of the state鈥檚 Child Care Assistance Program 鈥� caught the attention of leaders in dozens of other states and has been replicated widely in the years since. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just happening in one type of state,鈥� said Diane Girouard, state policy director at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nonprofit that advocates for high-quality early learning experiences. 鈥淚t鈥檚 happening in [states] big and small; blue, red and purple; rural and non-rural. States are just seeing that it鈥檚 working. It鈥檚 unique. It鈥檚 a really good workplace benefit.鈥�

The idea to make early educators automatically eligible for childcare assistance was conceived as a strategy to help recruit and retain early childhood educators in the wake of the pandemic. By 2022, many families needed childcare to return to a normal work schedule but often couldn鈥檛 find spots for their children because early care and education programs were so severely understaffed, leaving slots unfilled and entire classrooms vacant. 

The model was so successful in Kentucky that other states took notice and began to fund their own versions of an effort to provide childcare assistance to early childhood educators, primarily through pilot programs. More recently, some states have even moved to make the program permanent. 

Last month, both and enacted laws making most early childhood educators automatically eligible for childcare assistance. Iowa鈥檚 governor signed a bill on April 9, while Kentucky鈥檚 program was made permanent a few days later, on April 14. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e psyched,鈥� said Sarah Vanover, director of policy and advocacy at Kentucky Youth Advocates and one of the champions of this program in the Bluegrass State. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e known for being frugal and conservative with money,鈥� Vanover said of Kentucky鈥檚 legislature, which is overwhelmingly Republican. 鈥淎nd yet this is something we鈥檙e investing in. When you have that dialogue with [program] directors, they鈥檒l tell you they have been able to open classrooms and keep staff.鈥�

The reason states have continued to invest in this type of program, Vanover and other state leaders shared in interviews, is because it works. By delivering free or discounted childcare to early educators 鈥� many of whom have jobs with low wages and few, if any, benefits 鈥� several states have seen workers who are more willing to stay in their jobs. And some educators who had left the workforce to stay home with their young children are finding it鈥檚 just enough of an edge to lure them back into their teaching positions, surveys and program directors have shared.

Since 2022, leaders from 38 other states have reached out to Vanover about the model, she said. Many of those leaders have gone on to pursue some form of the program. At least a dozen states, including , , , and , currently have at least a pilot program in place providing childcare assistance to early childhood educators. Two others, New Jersey and West Virginia, have introduced related bills. is the only state known to have initially offered and then ended this type of program, and in that case, it was the result of a severe budget deficit, Girouard said. 

While the model has spread, no two initiatives are exactly alike, Girouard added.  

Kentucky and Iowa, for example, make this benefit available to early childhood educators regardless of income, while most other states only have enough funding to increase the income threshold above what is available to all families in their states. In Rhode Island, for instance, the state鈥檚 childcare subsidy program is available to all families with an income less than 261% of the federal poverty level. For , that income cap increases slightly, to 300%. 

And Kentucky鈥檚 program includes any staff member working in a center-based early care and education program 鈥� from teachers to administrators, cooks to early intervention specialists. 

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 run a childcare program without the assistant teachers, without the nutrition staff, without the administrators,鈥� Vanover said. 鈥淚f you’re looking at doing this without the other staff, you鈥檙e going to have teachers get shuffled around. It鈥檚 essential for the whole program to take advantage of it 鈥� every employee.鈥�

Meanwhile, a in Maine 鈥� called the 鈥渃hildcare employment award鈥� 鈥� has emerged as unique in a couple of ways. 

Maine鈥檚 program provides at least a 50% discount on childcare for early childhood educators, according to Heather Marden, co-executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, a state affiliate of NAEYC. For staff who were already eligible for childcare subsidies before the pilot, the state also covers the cost of their co-pays, which can run anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000 a year, Marden said.

Importantly, Maine鈥檚 program is distinct in that it allows home-based childcare providers 鈥� a group often left out of this benefit 鈥� to participate. (The legislation that made Kentucky鈥檚 program permanent also allows home-based providers to use the benefit for the first time.)

A recent of Maine鈥檚 pilot program found that it has had a positive impact on workforce retention, noting that nearly every participant was considering leaving the field before receiving the award.

Moreover, the report found, many of those participants were weighing whether to leave the workforce altogether to stay home with their children, rather than looking for jobs in other fields. The discounted childcare has put enough money back into their pockets that they have been able to stay.

Marden noted that while that鈥檚 good for each individual teacher, it鈥檚 also good for entire communities. 

鈥淭he impact of retaining one educator is pretty incredible,鈥� she said, explaining that a single educator gained or retained opens up licensed classroom slots for four to 12 children. 

Maine鈥檚 childcare employment award program was serving 511 children from 313 families as of September 2025, with nearly as many children and educators on the waitlist. The state has funded the pilot at $2.5 million a year for the past two years, and it just hasn鈥檛 been enough to reach everyone, Marden explained.

While many early childhood leaders in Maine want to see the pilot program funded at a higher amount, the reality is that it will likely soon cease to exist altogether. During the recent legislative session, which ended in mid-April, policymakers did not fund the pilot for another year. As of now, the program is slated to end after June 30.

In Iowa, uptake has been strong. As of September 2025, more than 3,600 children from 2,153 families had taken advantage of the benefit, according to data from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. And a survey conducted by the state agency, the results of which were shared in January 2025, found that 87% of participants remain in their roles, and 12% began working in childcare as a result of the pilot. 

Hollie Allen, co-owner of Vine Street Child Care, a large center-based program in West Des Moines, Iowa, said that at least 13 of her teachers 鈥� out of about 60 people on staff 鈥� are enrolled in the program. They still owe co-pays between $35 and $100 per week, depending on factors like household income and number of children, she said, but that鈥檚 a big improvement over the full cost of a spot in her program.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand why they鈥檙e calling it free childcare. It鈥檚 not,鈥� Allen said, but added that, compared to the $360 per week she charges for an infant slot, 鈥減aying $67 is awesome.鈥�

The program has been a 鈥渄ouble boon鈥� for Allen, she said, because she was previously giving staff who weren鈥檛 eligible for other financial support a 50% discount on childcare at Vine Street 鈥� and losing money on those slots in the process. Now, with the state鈥檚 childcare assistance program covering the cost of early childhood educators鈥� childcare, Allen has been able to give every person on payroll a $2 per hour wage increase. 

鈥淚t was a big cashflow injection for our program,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淭hose across-the-board wage increases were critical.鈥�

In other states, such as Rhode Island, where the pilot program has been extended through 2028, the impact on turnover in the field has been real but modest, said Lisa Hildebrand, executive director of the Rhode Island AEYC. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 still helpful,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he intent is there. It鈥檚 still retaining some educators. But it could be a lot better.鈥�

Hildebrand added: 鈥淲e just need way more money in the system. This is not going to solve all the problems. It鈥檚 a little bit of Band-Aids. You鈥檙e giving free childcare to educators because you鈥檙e not paying them enough that they can afford childcare on their own. You鈥檙e still not paying people enough, and that鈥檚 the problem.鈥�