By Martha C. White

(Excerpt)

Many of those jobs vanished when enrollment plummeted. Parents, confined at home with their kids, no longer needed daycare, or were unwilling to re-enroll even with daycare centers’ heightened safety and sanitation protocols. Some child care workers left the field because they were parents with kids of their own who needed supervision and help with remote learning, while others were older and at a higher risk for Covid-19 complications. And despite being on the front lines, many child care workers still struggle financially. As of 2018, the NWLC found that 10 percent of child care workers earn incomes that put them below the federal poverty line.

“One of the things we know families really struggle with is affordability,” said Katherine Gallagher Robbins, director for child care and early education at the Center for Law and Social Policy. “That’s also an important part of the picture here.”

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