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�

It鈥檚 been a difficult year for Mary Moody, owner of the top-rated Silver Bluff Kids Early Learning Center in Haywood County. She said her business has struggled since federal pandemic funds used to keep childcare centers open ran out in 2025.

Moody didn鈥檛 want to cut staff salaries after the federal money ran out, she said in an email, but avoiding wage cuts and paying higher operational costs meant the center had to end contributions to retirement plans and employee health insurance reimbursements 鈥渂ecause the money simply wasn鈥檛 there.鈥�

The center also had to cut back on art and craft supplies and some activities. 

The new state budget tosses a financial life preserver to rural businesses like Moody鈥檚 that provide subsidized childcare, offering them some hope of stability after a long period of hardship.

The budget commits $97 million in federal funds to raise subsidy rates, and it also sets a minimum rate, called a 鈥渞ate floor,鈥� that will end up sending more money to rural childcare providers than they otherwise would have received. Subsidies help low-income families cover childcare costs. 

鈥淭his is what we have been begging for for years,鈥� said Mandy Mills, executive director of the Southwestern Child Development Commission.

Rural providers collect fewer subsidy dollars per child than urban providers. Payments are based on market rate studies, as well as the quality of the childcare center or home and the age of the child. 

Rural providers have argued for years that the rates they鈥檝e been paid fall far below their actual costs. 

Mills鈥� commission administers subsidies for 14 western counties and operates the childcare resource and referral service for 37 counties. The rate floor will make a huge difference in rural western countries, she said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a game changer,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have had programs closing right and left.鈥�

It鈥檚 not just childcare providers who called for a rate floor. Child advocates and businesses did, too.听 called the rate floor a 鈥渂reakthrough鈥� and 鈥渢he single most consequential childcare provision in the budget.鈥�

Establishing a rate floor was also a top recommendation from Gov. Josh Stein鈥檚

Rural centers and home-based childcare operators that had been struggling are in line for significant increases.

A top-rated, five-star center in Randolph County receives a $867 subsidy per month for each infant, said Leanna Martin, director of early childhood education policy and research at NC Child. Starting in October, that same center will see subsidies increase by $500 a month for each infant.

In another example, reimbursements for five-star home-based care for 3- to 5-year-olds in Alleghany County will increase from $407 per month to $900 a month. 

The hope is that childcare options will expand in rural areas, with the increased payments encouraging centers and homes to accept more children. 

鈥淲hen reimbursements were so low, they were losing so much money,鈥� Martin said. 

There鈥檚 a tremendous need for infant care, but costs for providers are higher for babies because childcare centers need one staff member for every five babies. Staff-to-child ratios are higher for older children. 

Centers throughout western North Carolina closed classrooms because they could not hire or keep enough staff, said Mills. When centers needed to cut back, infant care was the first thing to go. 

Moody at Silver Bluff Kids is anxious to restore employee benefits and hire a new teacher. 

鈥淭he subsidy rate floor will, number one, allow us to avoid the big financial burden we have had. It will allow us to reinstate either a health insurance policy or a health insurance reimbursement plan with higher reimbursement rates than we were previously able to contribute to employees鈥� insurance. We will also contribute again to the staff鈥檚 retirement plans,鈥� Moody said. 

The center is fully enrolled with 54 children. Moody couldn鈥檛 afford to hire a new teacher, so she and the assistant director have been filling in. Moody said she spends her nights and weekends doing paperwork. 

鈥淭he rate floor, in my opinion, will allow centers to thrive,鈥� she said. 鈥� I think it will be a game-changer for retaining highly qualified staff and recruiting additional staff. This investment will allow many centers like ours to continue providing the high-quality care we are known for, without the financial stress of trying to figure out how to fit it all into the budget creatively.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Laura Leslie for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

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�

Nearly every child in Hawai驶i lives in a community that lacks adequate licensed childcare, with access rates falling far behind the national average, according to recent reports from the Center for American Progress.听

Challenges finding affordable childcare have also worsened for some families this year as they face delays with receiving state subsidies reducing the costs of preschool. 

聽measure the percentage of kids in every state who live in childcare deserts 鈥� communities where at least three kids are vying for a single seat in a licensed program. These programs include options like public or private preschools, group childcare homes and Head Start, said Hailey Gibbs, associate director of early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress.听

In 鈥嬧�婬awai驶i, 96% of kids live in these deserts 鈥� more than double the national average. Of these kids, 86% live in communities with no supply of licensed childcare providers at all, according to the Center for American Progress report.听

The data highlights the need for greater investments in childcare programs, including more support for staff, Gibbs said.  mean that some programs that are already in high demand may need to cut back on the number of students they serve, she said. 

鈥淧rovider financial viability is essential to standing up a childcare system that can actually meet demand,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou really need to be able to attract educators into the field.鈥澛�

The study does not include unlicensed sources of care, such as grandparents, neighbors and , which allow kids to learn alongside their family members, said Malia Tsuchiya, early childhood policy and advocacy coordinator at Hawai驶i Children Action鈥檚 Network. 

Even taking these options into account, she said, families need more access to early learning programs. The state has aggressively expanded its public preschool programs in recent years, adding more than 1,800 seats in traditional public and charter schools since 2022. But the capacity of private childcare providers has fallen by roughly 950 seats in the same time period, according to a  from the Department of Human Services and Executive Office on Early Learning. 

Hawai驶i鈥檚 workforce of early educators shrank during the pandemic and never recovered, Tsuchiya said, leading some providers to close some classrooms and reduce their enrollment.听

鈥淲e鈥檙e blessed to have multi-generational families and aunties, uncles, cousins, grandmas that are willing to step in and help supplement childcare,鈥� Tsuchiya said. 鈥淏ut do they have a choice?鈥� 

State Aid On Its Way?

For some families, securing childcare has only become harder to navigate as they face delays with receiving state tuition subsidies. 

Operating under the Department of Human Services, Preschool Open Doors provides tuition subsidies for young children whose families make up to 500% of the federal poverty level. The maximum subsidy ranges from $1,200 to $1,500 a month. 

Typically, the application window opens near the  to give the department time to process families鈥� applications before the payment period begins on July 1. This year, the application opened on , giving the department just over a month before families expected their subsidies to kick in. Parents need to reapply for the subsidy every year. 

The applications opened later than usual because the Department of Human Services needed to update its administrative rules expanding Preschool Open Door鈥檚 age eligibility to 2-year-olds. The department was initially expected to expand the program to 2-year-olds back in January, but it instructed families to  applying at the time to create more time for the rule change. 

As of last week, the program received over 6,100 applications and had processed 1,282. Staff process 10 to 15 applications a day, Joseph Campos II, director of the Hawai驶i Department of Human Services, said in an emailed statement. The department is exploring strategies to reduce the backlog, he said, adding that wait times are longer than usual because of the high number of submissions the department received as soon as applications opened in May.听

But the delayed release date has left families scrambling for answers. 

Parent Christine Russo said she submitted an application for her twin daughters the morning of May 29, hoping an early submission would secure a quick response time from Preschool Open Doors. But more than a month later, she doesn鈥檛 know if her daughters qualify for the program 鈥� and the subsidy she was receiving through June has stopped.听

Last year, Russo鈥檚 daughters qualified for Preschool Open Doors, meaning that she paid only $28 a month for their preschool tuition. But the program year ended on June 30, meaning that Russo is now covering the full costs of tuition for July 鈥� over $2,700 for both girls.听

Russo said she doesn鈥檛 want to pull her daughters out of preschool, since it would mean losing her deposit and two spots that are in high demand. Russo lives in 驶Ewa Beach, a community with a scarce licensed childcare supply, according to the .

Expecting to cover the full costs of preschool this month, Russo is worried what will happen if the tuition payments don鈥檛 kick by August. Earlier this week, she learned her application is being processed, but she鈥檚 still waiting to hear if her daughters qualify for the subsidy.听

鈥淢y anticipation was if they open this late, they鈥檝e got it under control,鈥� Russo said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not looking good at all.鈥� 

The Department of Human Services will retroactively issue tuition subsidies dating back to the date of children鈥檚 preschool enrollment or families鈥� application, whichever came later, Campos said. Families who applied for July benefits and enrolled their children in preschool will receive subsidies for the full month if their application is approved, he said.听

Even with the reassurance of tuition backpay, some families and providers are stuck in limbo. 

At Seagull Schools, which offers early learning programs at six O驶ahu sites, some parents have decided to withdraw their children for the month of July because their tuition benefits haven鈥檛 come through, said Chief Executive Officer Megan McCorriston. Other families who are new to the school are holding off enrolling their children until they know they can qualify for the subsidies, she said. 

It鈥檚 a difficult situation for working parents, she said, and it also puts more stress on providers. Seagull Schools will hold seats for families who are waiting to hear back from Preschool Open Doors, she said, but that means some spots remain unfilled for two to three months at a time. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 sort of a wait and see situation,鈥� she said. 

This story was originally published by . Civil Beat鈥檚 education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy, and 鈥淒ata Dive鈥� is supported in part by the Will J. Reid Foundation.

The mismatch between the childcare arrangements parents say they prefer and those that public policy tends to emphasize 鈥� which I call the childcare preference gap 鈥� was reinforced by two recent surveys. 

A administered to 1,000 parents with children ages 5 and under in December 2025 by GBAO on behalf of Third Way 鈥� a center-left think tank 鈥� found that around half of parent participants preferred having a parent stay home to provide care, with another 15% preferring a family, friend or neighbor caregiver. While families were generally satisfied with the care their children were receiving, only around half of those using home- or center-based care said it was their preferred childcare arrangement, compared to 80% of those with a parent staying home and nearly 70% of those using FFN care.

The largest U.S. of parents with children under the age of 6, released in May by New America鈥檚 New Practice Lab, echoes these findings. When asked about their ideal childcare arrangement, 49% of nearly 5,500 parent participants said they鈥檇 prefer to care for their child themselves or for the child’s other parent to provide the care. Meanwhile, 11% preferred an FFN caregiver, and just 15% listed their ideal as a formal setting.

Surveys conducted earlier in the 2020s by and reported similar results. Importantly, these preferences are dynamic: As children age, there is more interest in formal programs, such as licensed childcare centers.

It鈥檚 important to consider that most of the polls described above asked parents to envision their ideal childcare scenario, setting aside costs and the financial impact of having a parent stay home. But families don鈥檛 live in hypotheticals. There are real financial implications for decisions about childcare, and when opportunities to access free or low-cost licensed early care and education arise 鈥� like universal pre-K or childcare 鈥� . What鈥檚 more, the strong preference for parental care in the first year of life seems to implicate a need for better paid leave policy as much as childcare policy, particularly since .

There鈥檚 also the reality that what people say they want to do in a survey can differ from what they actually do when making choices. However, the data can still be meaningful and should be considered when designing family and childcare policies. It is no more justified to ignore the desires of parents who prefer their children in licensed programs than those who prefer to provide the care themselves. 

Doing so can give policymakers a false impression that all parents need is access to any childcare slot, regardless of its characteristics. However, from the nonprofit Child Trends found that among the 622 families surveyed, 64% of those that used any form of nonparental childcare said there was moderate or high 鈥渕isalignment鈥� between their current care setup and their preferences and needs. That misalignment reflected parents using programs that didn鈥檛 fit their budget, align with their quality standards, reflect their beliefs or match their ideal setting. This discrepancy can actually cause material harm: Studies have found that when parents feel uncomfortable about their childcare arrangement, it may lead to . 

Yet current federal childcare policy, as well as most reform proposals over the past 20 years, do a rather poor job of reflecting parents鈥� stated preferences. While public policy does not always match public opinion (if it did, the U.S. would have, for example, and ), there is clearly room for improvement here. 

When it comes to childcare, for example, receive most of the funding from the Child Care and Development Fund, a federal program that sends grant money to states and is a key source of funding for childcare subsidies. Families with stay-at-home parents are categorically ineligible for childcare subsidies, and the most recent reauthorization of the law governing the program, the , made it harder for FFN providers . The Build Back Better Act that passed the House during the Biden Administration did not make any fundamental changes to that orientation.

To understand the persistent preference gap, one must understand the origins of modern U.S. childcare policy. Because childcare became , the conceptual underpinnings of the CCDBG Act are grounded in the premise that childcare assistance can increase employment and earnings, ultimately (the reasoning goes) enabling families to move out of poverty.

The appeal of such an approach is understandable: It鈥檚 far easier for policymakers to wrap their hands around licensed programs caring for children during parents鈥� reported work hours than to engage with the messy complexity of actually ensuring that parents have the care they prefer in order to bond with and healthily raise their very young children. Closing the preference gap, then, requires politicians on both sides of the aisle to reframe the goals of childcare policy 鈥� and to get more comfortable with trusting parents.

America鈥檚 current approach to childcare policy isn鈥檛 the only pathway. In the past, the U.S. actually did experiment with that allowed eligible low-income parents to use subsidy dollars to pay themselves, though such efforts never caught fire. Other countries have also built examples to look to. A recent from the People鈥檚 Policy Project highlighted how Nordic nations have built a childcare system that couples affordable licensed options with support for informal care. While the financial support available in the Nordic countries is unlikely to be high enough to enable a parent to stop working entirely, it could be the key to unlocking greater flexibility in balancing work and family responsibilities.

A shift does seem to be underway in America. Some policies are becoming more inclusive. New Mexico鈥檚 universal childcare system, for example, allows and receive $750 a month per child, though it does still exclude stay-at-home parents. Politicians are changing their tune, too: Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna that would create new structures to compensate FFN and stay-at-home parents alongside licensed programs, while the Democratically-aligned Project 2029 recently that would guarantee parents the right to choose the childcare that works best for them by offering access to either free licensed programs or a monthly stipend of $1,000 to compensate stay-at-home parents or FFN caregivers.

More and philanthropic leaders are also speaking up about the need to meet parents where they are at. For instance, the WeVision EarlyEd initiative, led by the Bainum Family Foundation, reimagining childcare policy to support two pathways for families: high-quality licensed ECE, and 鈥渢rusted caregivers鈥� which include parents and FFN caregivers.

This evolution can鈥檛 come fast enough: All families deserve the freedom to get as close as possible to their ideal childcare arrangement. That would benefit kids, parents and society writ large. The more that public policy can align with family childcare preferences, the better off the country will be.

Disclosure: The Bainum Foundation provides financial support to 社区黑料.

The classroom at the Northeast Community Action Partnership Early Head Start was part of a five-week program that uses the recorders 鈥� often called talk pedometers 鈥� to gather data on teacher-child interactions聽and train their educators to guide them toward longer, more in-depth conversations. The program is offered by the national nonprofit , or Language Environment Analysis, which uses the technology to research young children’s language skills.

The Buffett Early Childhood Institute, an education research center at the University of Nebraska, partnered with seven rural and urban Head Start locations to use Lena technology this spring with more than 1,300 children. It was Nebraska鈥檚 first statewide implementation, funded by a five-year, $1.3 million geared toward helping states create programming to improve child literacy skills.

Lena has existed as a research nonprofit for more than two decades, but its professional development program, Lena Grow, started about six years ago. Last year, Florida lawmakers to provide Lena Grow to more than 400 preschools. The program has been over the past two years with a $3.2 million grant. Tennessee currently uses the technology in more than .

鈥淚t鈥檚 such a huge opportunity to be able to utilize these grant funds because it sets a really wonderful foundation for [children] as they enter kindergarten,鈥� said Paula Thompson, a University of Nebraska-Kearney professor and one of the grant project directors. 鈥淚t will hopefully have positive outcomes as we look toward that ultimate goal of increasing third grade proficiency.鈥�

The work follows decades of discussion over how preschoolers best learn language. 

A found a dramatic difference in the number of words heard by children, depending on their family鈥檚 income 鈥� often referred to as the 30-million-word gap. has found that it鈥檚 not so much the number of words children hear, but the quality of the language they are exposed to.

Researchers have that talk and interaction between adults and children in their first few years of life often impacts future cognitive development and academic achievement. This engagement is measured in 鈥渃onversational turns,鈥� or the back-and-forth exchange of words between children and adults. 

鈥淭he term ‘serve and return’ is kind of a basic analogy for these conversational turn-taking events,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淚t’s been a foundation in language and literacy for years, and we just continue to strive toward better understanding it.鈥� 

Lena records and collects data about conversational turns through the device in each child鈥檚 purple vest. Daycares, preschools and Head Start centers use the data and training to increase the number of conversational turns between adults and children.

Lena Grow was designed to be used by all children in a classroom, but it is especially helpful for kids who don鈥檛 talk much or are at risk of 鈥� meaning they get fewer than five back-and-forth exchanges with an adult per hour. An of 33,256 children using Lena Grow found that 13% experienced language isolation.

鈥淭he way to improve literacy is actually to invest in and support language development in these early years,鈥� said Alexandra Daro, director of applied research for the Buffett Institute. 鈥淭he more back and forth you can get in a particular conversation, the better children are able to pick up on the language that you’re using.鈥�

A child鈥檚 use of conversational turns has been to early literacy skills, social development and IQ scores. 

A June shows that the 51 children who participated in Nebraska鈥檚 initial Lena Grow program increased their conversational turns by 21% over the course of five weeks 鈥� from 33.5 to 40.6 per hour.

Children in center-based childcare average 15 hourly turns, but an optimal early talk environment is roughly 40, according to Lena. Youngsters who began Nebraska鈥檚 Lena Grow program with fewer than 15 hourly conversational turns boosted their talk by 111%, from an average of 9.7 to 20.5.

During the professional development program, early childhood centers have the children wear their vests one day per week. The recorder collects the number of conversational turns per child, in whatever language they are speaking, while the teacher continues the day like normal.

Norfolk educator Cassie Niedig said the data brought attention to children the adults weren’t talking to as much, such as Elvis, a 3-year-old who is nonverbal. It also showed that some toddlers were vocalizing words but not creating conversational turns with adults.

鈥淚 thought I was talking to Elvis a lot,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 realize how much more we talked to Marlo versus the other [children] 鈥� he鈥檚 our best talker because he鈥檚 the oldest. But even though he鈥檚 talking a lot, it鈥檚 not necessarily with conversational turns.鈥�

Niedig said the toddlers loved the vests when they were first introduced to them, but there have been struggles because the children are so young. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e had a couple of issues just because they want you to let them play, and they don鈥檛 want to have to put them on. But otherwise, we鈥檝e had a great time with it,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e just let them talk, and I do not treat it any differently than a normal day other than trying to focus on whatever goal we are focusing on that week.鈥�

One student with sensory issues struggled wearing one at first, but got used to it within a couple of hours. Placing stickers on the front of the vests also helped the kids warm up to the idea of wearing them once a week.

At Dodge County Head Start in Fremont, Nebraska, the 5-year-olds in the Lena program were excited to wear their vests, said Brittany Brown, a Head Start education specialist. One boy said the bulky recorder on the front made him feel like Iron Man 鈥� the device reminded him of the glowing reactor in the center of the superhero鈥檚 suit.

鈥淭hey feel a little empowered, and they really like having it 鈥� there’s no hesitancy to put the vest on,鈥� Brown said.

After a day of recording, the data is uploaded and analyzed. Then, a Lena coach 鈥� often a local staff member trained by the nonprofit 鈥� teaches the educators participating in the program ways to increase the number of turns. 

鈥淭he teacher is able to see if there is a certain hour where there’s a dip, and they’re able to discuss with their coaches ways to increase those conversational turns throughout the day,鈥� said Rocy O鈥橩eefe, the nonprofit鈥檚 chief growth officer.

During the coaching sessions, educators choose strategies to implement in the classroom. For example, Lena recommends that while teachers talk, read or sing with a child, they should comment on what the student is doing, name things the child is interested in, wait for responses, imitate them or get down on the children’s eye level so interactions are face-to-face.

鈥淭he coaches will work with teachers to set a goal based on the observations of the data 鈥� either a classroom average goal, or they are looking at individual children who might need some individualized attention,鈥� Daro said. 鈥淭hen the teachers practice throughout the rest of the week.鈥�

Amy Bloomquist, coaching coordinator and area manager, was trained by Lena to be a coach for the Norfolk Head Start program. She said teachers have responded well to working on a specific topic each week to increase conversational turns. They also talk to families about the program after parents have given permission for their child to wear the recording device. 

鈥淓ach week they’re sending an informational flyer home with the families, sparking some conversation between the teachers and the families,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e also giving them some tips on how to increase conversational turns at home.鈥�

In Nebraska, 22 Head Start centers are eligible to participate in the program, and Thompson said the Buffett Institute hopes to work with as many as it can by the end of the five-year grant. Its main goals for the next few years are not only for Nebraska children to improve their conversational turns, but for Lena Grow to increase 4-year-olds’ literacy scores on an assessment of early childhood development called Teaching Strategies Gold, or TS Gold. Lena Grow has been to improve language and literacy scores on these assessments in other states, such as Wisconsin, Florida,聽Ohio and Washington, D.C.听

鈥淭he dream goal is to also eventually be able to work with the school districts that these kids are entering into to look at improvement in TS Gold [scores] as they transition into kindergarten,鈥� Daro said. 鈥淪o, big dreams, but that’s what we’re going for.鈥�

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation and Overdeck Family Foundation provide financial support to Lena and 社区黑料.

Though it was only a few years ago, the fancy gadgets have gotten a lot more advanced since then, and now Suskind is back with her next (and, she promises, her last) book, addressing the promise and perils of the technological revolution coming for every element of society, including young children. 

In 鈥�,鈥� which will be released on July 14, Suskind acknowledges that technology is swiftly mastering endeavors that were once considered uniquely human. 鈥淎rtificial intelligence is eroding our supposed superiority in each area one by one. 鈥� It generates language with fluency that surpasses most humans. Al turns out art, music, poetry, software. It uses existing tools and builds new ones.鈥� 

But she zeroes in on a distinction that matters: Unlike humans, 鈥淎I does not care.鈥�

Suskind鈥檚 new book guides parents, caregivers and educators through navigating how to raise children in the age of AI by offering the HOPE framework, which offers four principles: human connection, owning imperfections, protecting the early years and enhancing adult-child interaction. She called it HOPE, she said, because 鈥淗aving a child is an act of hope for the future, and the future is not predetermined, as much as it feels like it is.鈥� 

A pediatric surgeon and the founder and co-director of , Suskind has been a prominent voice in early learning since the publication of her 2015 book, 鈥溾�� which popularized the concept of linguistic 鈥渟erve and return鈥� between babies and their caregivers. 

In the conversation below, Suskind describes her nuanced stance on AI and shares her thoughts on how AI shapes child development as well as what parents and early educators should consider when deciding how and when to use technology with young children.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How does 鈥淗uman Raised鈥� fit in with your other books? 

My whole journey has been about the power of talk and interaction and relationships 鈥� to allow children to not just learn, but to become human. A couple years ago, when AI started building momentum, I was like, “Oh my gosh, wait a second.” Suddenly we have technology that can mimic the human interaction that builds a child’s brain, which has been the focus of my entire research. I was like, “Oh, we really need to be thinking about this in a really deep and thorough way.” Because not only was it going to come so fast and furious, but parents have no guidelines or guidance. There are no policy guardrails. And so I felt I needed to write one more book 鈥� I swear this is my last one! I wrote it to think through this whole thorny issue myself. 

What particular insights do you bring as a surgeon?

I’m a cochlear implant surgeon. The way I got into this field was [by examining] differences in early language environments among children who are deaf and hard of hearing and got cochlear implants, [versus] typically developing children. I saw interaction and language 鈥� as modalities for building cognitive skills, language and literacy. 

I’ve always been cognizant that and nurturing interactions are important for socioemotional development, but so much of my work has been focused on those hard skills. And in writing this book, [I see] that human connection is a way to become human, to build the social brain, to build our ability to connect with other humans and navigate the human world. 

How can parents and educators tell when a technology is enhancing connection versus replacing it?

The frictionless experience is what makes it so seductive, and so different than what we’ve met before. I mean, we’ve had technologic innovation throughout all of human history, but it’s always been sort of a one-way street. Even social media and the engagement economy has been about sucking our engagement, but it hasn’t been building an intimate relationship and that is what generative AI [does].

AI is not a monolith. 鈥� The generative AI and that intimacy building aspect of it is what is seductive for adults, and for young children and very young children. The younger you are, the more likely you are to both anthropomorphize this technology, to project thoughts and feelings onto these entities. So they’re more at risk. 

At the same time, I am not anti-technology. 鈥� I believe in the power of technology that allows human flourishing. And I do believe that if we use it in the right way, it could do the things that we want. Allow opportunity gaps to close, allow people to have more presence. So let’s use it to enhance the human condition, not to replace human connection. 

I love tech, but I don’t love tech to replace the powerful role that parents and caregivers play in building children. 

In your book, you talk about the importance of owning our imperfections. How does that make us more human?

One really amazing experience in writing this book was reflecting back on the imperfections of humans and our relationships. We’ve always looked at them as bugs. How can we be better and more perfect parents? But the truth is that 鈥済ood enough parenting鈥� is an evolutionary gift that actually teaches kids how to be human. 鈥� Those missteps and ruptures and repairs help us learn how to be good partners with other humans. 

In your new book, you wrote, 鈥淎I has the keys to unlock the social gate,鈥� which you define as 鈥渢he biological filter built into the infant brain that evolved to allow a particular type of teacher: a human one.鈥� What are the ramifications of this breach? 

We may not know everything about the technologies that are being built, but we know a whole heck of a lot about how children develop and how they can best develop to their full potential. In some ways, this book was about understanding the interaction between technology and children and adults, but also understanding how the human brain is built. 

In some ways, evolution gave us a mechanism to ensure that baby’s brains develop through human connection. Kids don’t learn from TV. It affects their language development and social development, but it doesn’t actually teach them. The social gate has made sure that babies only learn from human interaction. It opens it up and allows the learning to happen. And now that AI can mimic that human interaction 鈥� it has the passcode to the social gate, and whatever flows through from that technology is actively wiring that child’s brain. 

Patricia Kuhl [professor at the University of Washington and co-director of the university鈥檚 ] is a goddess of early brain development. Her research 鈥� is probably one of the most important things [for understanding] how to navigate AI in the early learning space. The basic science of human development is incredibly important not just for parents to understand, but policymakers and the people who are building this tech. They need to understand how we develop, so that they build tools that don’t inadvertently lead humanity in the wrong direction. 

And how much faith do you have in the people building these AI tools? 

I’m not going to answer that question, other than to say that I wrote this book primarily for parents and caregivers 鈥� for anyone who loves children. But I want desperately for those who are building technology 鈥� to read and understand it, so that they can more intentionally design with developmental science in mind. 

How could you see AI technologies supporting the early years? 

Number one, don’t displace that human connection that supports the parents or teachers in the children’s lives. We know about the administrative burden and the invisible labor that makes caring for young children so hard, so let’s build tools to make it easier for parents and teachers so that they can be more present. Let’s build tools that allow us to understand better how children are developing when [they] are exhibiting delays, so that we can more quickly ameliorate those issues. And there are scientifically driven tools that support the early learning process, but I don’t think that they should be used as replacements for teachers. 

What are some promising areas of research?

Brian Scassellati, who’s a computer scientist at Yale [and director of the ], showed that social robots can help teach children with autism spectrum disorder to learn social cues and become more connected with other humans. In the same vein, [that when] children read to social robots versus humans, they were less anxious. Using the science to help guide us in understanding the best ways to support children’s learning is great, but [we should] never forget that it must not replace human connection, it must only support it. 

I’m a physician, I come from the world of medicine. When we create new biologics, let’s say a vaccination, it’s not like we say, “Okay, we’ve created it. Let’s see how it does out in the real world and then go back and tweak and fix it.鈥� No, we do really rigorous studies to make sure it’s safe for the population. And right now everything is being put on parents like, “Oh, you decide 鈥�” It’d be like saying, “Here’s your car seat 鈥� let us know if it’s safe and we can go back and tweak.鈥� These are really powerful technologies. We need a lot more science, not to stifle innovation, but to make sure our humans remain safe. 

We can’t wait for the research to happen to get guardrails in place so that no harm is done. We need longitudinal data in understanding children who are growing up with generative AI as a significant presence, in understanding the impacts on language, socioemotional development and attachment. We don’t have these. I want research on protective factors. What are the conditions in which AI tools generally support human connection rather than displacing it? It’s not just an academic question, it’s a design question that will shape the field. 

What are the skills that children are going to need to succeed in the future? 

Now that AI can do all the things that we were trying to optimize in our kids 鈥� like be the best at math and science 鈥� and all these hard skills now can be done by AI a million-fold better than humans, it’s those distinctly human edge skills that matter. The critical thinking, the social connection, the curiosity, creativity, resilience 鈥� those are going to be the skills that allow children to thrive in the age of AI. 

About two-dozen Hoosier childcare providers and advocates overwhelmingly opposed looser statewide staff educational requirements during a Monday public hearing.

鈥淭his is a profession. This is not just a babysitting job,鈥� said Hanna Wetzel, the director of the Children鈥檚 Learning Center of Posey County.

She spoke to representatives of the Family and Social Services Administration, the state agency overseeing childcare providers around Indiana.

FSSA last month dealing with staffing, meals, sleep and more 鈥� which Gov. Mike Braun and agency leaders say will lower costs for providers and families.

The agency plans to adopt the finalized regulations July 13, according to dockets for childcare and . They鈥檙e expected to take effect October 11.

The directors of childcare centers would no longer need a bachelor鈥檚 or associate鈥檚 degree to do the job, according to . They would qualify with two years of experience and a child development associate credential 鈥� which is as a career 鈥渟tepping stone鈥� by the organization that issues them.

Lead caregivers would not need a child development associate credential or other higher education 鈥� just a high school diploma or equivalent. And lower-level caregivers wouldn鈥檛 need to have completed high school, although they鈥檇 still have to be at least 18 years old.

Austin Scales, a lead educator at United Day Care Center in Muncie, said many of the primarily low-income children served there have experienced 鈥渟evere, significant trauma.鈥�

鈥淲ithout that education, I would not have been able to serve them,鈥� Scales said. He has a bachelor鈥檚 degree in early elementary education and special education.

Multiple people argued the changes would not assuage the industry鈥檚 labor shortages.

鈥淭he root causes of high director and staff turnover is driven by low compensation and burnout, not by educational requirements. Lowering expectations will not strengthen this workforce,鈥� said Amy Van Bruggen, the senior director of quality and compliance at The Westin School in central Indiana. She has also worked as a childcare inspector and referral provider.

Relaxed standards could lead to a temporary increase in job applicants, according to Erin Kissling, the president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana. But she said educators without early childhood degrees or credentials are less likely to remain in the profession over time, citing a University of Nebraska of eight states.

Other feedback

Several speakers supported 鈥渕odernization鈥� provisions, including those allowing for electronic records and dropping certain required postings.

Omar Khan, the leader of the Indiana Child Care Business Alliance, spoke in favor of provisions requiring caregivers to keep children within eyesight or hearing range 鈥� without using other devices 鈥� and within arm鈥檚 length around water.

He also applauded a proposed twice-annual active shooter and intruder drill mandate and proposed greater leeway in mixing age groups at opening and closing times.

But Khan and several others opposed relaxed regulations for sleeping and diapering.

FSSA鈥檚 draft would allow childcare centers to use sleeping bags, as long as they鈥檙e placed on carpet, instead of cots elevated off the floor. It would also broaden diaper-changing table provisions to 鈥渟urfaces;鈥� eliminate a ban on cloth, lattice or wicker parts; and scrap requirements for sanitizable pads and waterproof paper strips.

鈥淔amilies deserve to know their children are receiving the highest quality care in safe, developmentally appropriate environments,鈥� said Ashanti Ordone, the owner and CEO of Gifted & Talented Academy in Indianapolis.

Providers also spoke against allowing portable wading pools, citing drowning risks, and lower standards for the materials provided to children. The draft rules delete a list of required activity types, including art, literacy, math, music, science and more.

鈥淓very regulation should be evaluated by one question: Does this help ensure children are safe, nurtured, and given the strongest possible start in life?

鈥淎s you consider all these proposed licensing changes, I ask that we do not view quality and accessibility as competing priorities, because Indiana鈥檚 children deserve both,鈥� said Beth Wickham, representing Early Head Start programs across the state. 鈥淓very regulation should be evaluated by one question: does this help ensure children are safe, nurtured, and given the strongest possible start in life?鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.

He wanted the job, he said, because he thought he could make a bigger difference in students鈥� lives if he met them earlier in their schooling. But he didn鈥檛 know a whole lot about how kids in elementary school 鈥� particularly those in the early grades 鈥� learned best or what they really needed.

A few years later, when Kristi Dominguez became superintendent of Francik鈥檚 district, the Ferndale School District in northwest Washington state, she noticed that in his kindergarten classrooms, students sat at desks, often doing worksheets.听

鈥淲e had desks in rows,鈥� Francik confirmed.

That, plus the way the 4-year-old classrooms in Washington鈥檚 program were sequestered in different school buildings in the district, set off 鈥渞ed flags鈥� for Dominguez, who has a background in early childhood education. 

Dominguez moved quickly to make changes to the way the district approached the early grades. One of the decisions she made was to have principals at all six of the district鈥檚 elementary schools participate in a nearly yearlong leadership training program focused on child development and early learning. 

Like Francik, many elementary school principals come into the role any prior knowledge of 鈥� or experience in 鈥� early childhood. But not all districts have an early learning champion like Dominguez at the helm. As a result, some elementary school leaders never learn how to tailor their leadership style and school culture to meet the needs of their youngest students. 

The issue has only become more urgent in recent years, as increasing numbers of elementary schools now have co-located pre-K classrooms as well, creating an even younger population for school leaders to oversee. 

Francik and his principal colleagues participated in the , which seeks to help elementary school administrators develop and then deepen their knowledge and understanding of the early grades, with a focus on children in pre-K to third grade.

The program is facilitated by the , a think tank originally housed at the University of Washington in Seattle and now based at the University of Colorado Denver. The center launched an in-person version of the program in 2013 for Washington administrators before shifting to a virtual environment in 2021, making it more easily accessible to school and district leaders all across the country. 

The program seeks to help elementary school administrators develop and then deepen their knowledge and understanding of the early grades, with a focus on children in pre-K to third grade.

Most school leaders 鈥済o through certain preparation programs that don鈥檛 talk about child development,鈥� said Kristie Kauerz, founding executive director of the National P-3 Center. The result, she added, is school leaders who take the same approach to kindergarten as they do fourth grade. 

Dominguez didn鈥檛 want that to be the reality in her district. 

As Francik went through the 10-month training program (it has recently changed to run for seven months at a time), he began to realize how important the early grades are to future outcomes. He talked to and heard from school leaders in other states about how they were integrating early learning into their buildings, how they were funding pre-K, what was working, and where they were struggling. 

鈥淭he biggest lightbulb for me,鈥� Francik said, 鈥渨as play-based learning. Play-based learning is the work of kids.鈥�

He began to realize that, as children play, they use math concepts; practice communication; hone social-emotional skills by sharing, compromising and working through conflict; and sharpen their fine-motor skills by coloring and painting. 

Today, individual desks are nowhere to be found in Francik鈥檚 kindergarten classrooms. Kids sit in groups at tables, allowing for more collaboration and communication throughout the day. Students aren鈥檛 asked to sit still for more than 10 minutes at a time, since that isn鈥檛 developmentally appropriate for them. 

鈥淲e are not desks in rows anymore,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are a classroom where students are able to move and flow based on needs. We have academics being taught still, just not in rows. There鈥檚 lots of movement, lots of choice.鈥�

And in all TK through second grade classrooms in his school, students get one hour every single day to pursue their own interests in the classroom. At the end of the hour, they come back together to reflect, sharing celebrations and struggles. 

Next year, Central Elementary will bring that same model to its third graders too. Rather than the practices of the older grades being 鈥減ushed down鈥� to the early grades, the early grades are now influencing the whole school building. 

A similar approach is being used at Chicago Academy Elementary in Chicago Public Schools. 

Principal Joyce Pae, a former high school teacher and administrator, had three pre-K classrooms in her school but little to no guidance about how to integrate them into the rest of the building. She joined the Building Early Learning Leaders program 鈥� offered by VOCEL, a Chicago-based early learning nonprofit 鈥� for elementary school leaders at CPS in hopes of learning more about how to serve children in the early grades. 

The was launched in response to the city鈥檚 universal pre-K rollout, after VOCEL staff heard elementary school leaders repeatedly expressing, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel equipped for pre-K,鈥� said Jesse Ilhardt, executive director of VOCEL. 鈥淲e started talking to some principals, and they were pretty frank with us: 鈥榃e don鈥檛 know anything about early childhood education,鈥� 鈥� Ilhardt said. 鈥淪ome even told us they avoid pre-K classrooms, steer clear to leave them on their own island.鈥�

She added: 鈥淲hat we experienced was that leaders were hungry for preparedness earlier than the district was able to provide it.鈥�

During the BELL program, principals, assistant principals and instructional coaches from across the city come together over the course of a year to build knowledge and skills about early learning. The most valuable piece for Pae, she said, was the one-on-one coaching. Someone from VOCEL walked with Pae through her school鈥檚 pre-K classrooms, pointing out what was happening that she might have missed. 

鈥淭o the untrained eye, what looks like kids playing in the classroom is actually lots of social-emotional development,鈥� Pae said, reflecting on what she learned from that walkthrough experience. She also saw how math and literacy concepts were woven into play. 

Pae did those walkthroughs with a coach about once a quarter, she said, typically following some reading and discussion about developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood. During one of those walkthroughs, Pae asked her coach about something that had been bothering her. She鈥檇 noticed that preschool teachers had started using the interactive whiteboards in their classrooms for read-alouds. 

鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 like that, but I don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 because I鈥檓 stuck in a certain way of thinking,鈥� 鈥� Pae recalled telling her coach.听

The coach confirmed Pae鈥檚 suspicions. By switching storytime to a smartboard, students were missing out on critical learning opportunities, such as holding a book, turning the pages and realizing that stories are read from left to right.

鈥淭hose were all things kids need to acquire that they鈥檒l lose if they鈥檙e watching a story be read aloud and it just flips magically to the next page,鈥� Pae said. 鈥淚 had a hunch. She was able to name it, then take us back to standards.鈥�

The BELL experience, and the new knowledge and understanding it left her with, has had a lasting impact on Pae. She is more aware of the needs of the youngest students in her building, she said. She sees the way pre-K teachers help students name their emotions and cooperate with classmates 鈥� and how that can 鈥減rovide the building blocks for a child to be successful, not only in school but in society.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 totally changed the lens through which I viewed every grade level and also the adults in the building,鈥� Pae said. 

During professional development meetings with staff, Pae now builds in 鈥渕oments of play鈥� and socialization. She鈥檚 seen how those practices 鈥� plus encouraging natural curiosity and providing real-world context 鈥� help young children thrive, and she believes it will have the same effect on adults too. 

鈥淚t turns out what works best for our youngest learners and what鈥檚 effective for them is actually good for everyone,鈥� Pae said.

Even though many school principals are inexperienced with the early grades, an idea that came up repeatedly in interviews is that no school leader intends to leave out certain groups of learners. 

鈥淓very principal wants to do right by children,鈥� said Dominguez, the superintendent in Washington. 

But how a principal defines what is 鈥渞ight鈥� is often based on their own experiences in school. And because school principals are already stretched thin, managing facilities and staff and an ever-expanding list of responsibilities, they can be genuinely interested in better serving their youngest learners but unable to make early childhood development a priority. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 an understandable desire in school leaders that [they] want to know more and do better but have so little time to devote,鈥� said Ilhardt. 

Pae, who has actually devoted the time, said she understands why the focus just never makes it to the top of the list for some school administrators. In Chicago, because the pre-K program is state-funded, those classrooms can feel very separate from the rest of the elementary school, even when they are in the same building. 鈥淚t can easily be the last thing you think about,鈥� Pae said. 

Since Kauerz launched the National P-3 Leadership program, others like it 鈥� mostly local spinoffs, she said 鈥� have cropped up around the country. The programs aren鈥檛 intended to be a heavy lift for leaders; they are designed to offer a time and space for elementary school administrators to learn about and discuss early learning practices, free of judgment. 

In the early days of the National P-3 program, Kauerz said, it was full of leaders who either already prioritized their youngest students or were being urged to do so by superiors who did, Kauerz said. As the years have passed, that鈥檚 shifted. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to penetrate into the ranks of non-believers who are changing their minds,鈥� she said, noting that the program has served about 500 principals across the U.S. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 a lot of principals to go.鈥�

The BELL program has so far worked with leaders in 53 of Chicago鈥檚 473 elementary schools. It has a long way to go too, but the work is meaningful, worthwhile and full of 鈥渁ha moments,鈥� Ilhardt said.听

鈥淭here is so much focus and responsibility put on parents, caregivers and families to prepare young children for school,鈥� Ilhardt said. 鈥淲e have a responsibility, also, to ensure that schools are ready for young children, and that schools are really designed for children to be their best selves in those school buildings. That looks different than the design for children at older grade levels.鈥� 

The decline was cited in the an annual report released by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which uses federal data sets to measure national childhood well-being across more than a dozen indicators.听The most recent report finds that only 46% of 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in preschool between 2020-24, a 2 percentage-point drop since the years between 2015 and 2019.听

For the past decade, the figure has hovered within this same range, and experts warned that any five-year estimates that include data from the pandemic should be examined with caution, as extended school closures likely mask long-term trends. 

Still, the numbers come as states across the country have worked to expand access to early learning, so even a flatline has set off alarm bells for those on the ground 鈥� especially in areas that saw even greater declines.

Janice Barlow is the director of Kids Count in Delaware, which saw the second-largest drop in early learning enrollment nationally during this window, from 51% to 45%. Barlow said that while it鈥檚 possible these numbers partially reflect pandemic closures, 鈥渙ur score is low enough that we know that we need investment in our early care and education system.鈥�

Barlow said at least in part, Delaware鈥檚 drop is due to the climbing costs of early childcare which 鈥渋s rivaling the cost of other basic needs, things like housing, transportation, health care, food.鈥� 

And, across the state, she added, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have enough care for the kids who need to be served,鈥� which has led some parents to reduce hours at work, change jobs or drop out of the workforce altogether. 

In all, the Kids Count Data Book uses a number of federal data sets to measure 16 indicators over four areas: economic well-being; education; health and family; and community. The Casey Foundation, a private philanthropy group founded in 1948 to improve economic opportunity for children, then uses these indicators to score states out of 1,000 and rank their performance.听

Consistent with their last two data books, the greatest setbacks nationally were within education, where three of four indicators saw declines: preschool attendance and both math and reading proficiency. The only education measure that saw slight improvement was the four-year high school graduation rate, which improved by 1 percentage point between 2019 and 2024, up to 87%. 

Nearly all states (47) had worse education indicators in 2024 than in 2019, according to the report. Overall, New Jersey and Massachusetts scored the best in education, and only two states 鈥� Mississippi and Louisiana 鈥� saw significant improvements since 2019.

The report’s authors relied on data from the U.S. Census Bureau鈥檚 American Community Survey to measure the percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in school. A kid is counted as enrolled if they attend nursery school, preschool or kindergarten, including those sponsored by federal, state or local agencies, such as Head Start.

The American Community Survey disseminates this information in so-called one-year and five-year period estimates. The lead data expert on this year鈥檚 Kids Count report, Flo Gutierrez, noted that while the one-year estimates are more responsive to and reflective of recent changes, they lack reliable data for 13 states and D.C., forcing the report to rely on five-year estimates, which she called 鈥渢he next best thing.鈥� 

While Gutierrez said this data was still reliable and accurate, it does include some noise from the disruption caused by the pandemic which leads to 鈥渟ome masking of progress鈥� at both the state and national levels. For instance, while the five-year national estimates show a decline by 2 percentage points in enrollment, the one-year estimates for 2019 and 2024 show enrollment held steady. 

Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, who has spent decades studying this data, expressed much stronger skepticism around using the five-year estimates, arguing the pandemic-era numbers muddy the findings beyond reliable use.

鈥淚f we want to know about 2024, I wouldn鈥檛 use it,鈥� Barnett said. 鈥淚f we want to know about kids鈥� experiences during the pandemic and up to 2024, then you could make a case to use it. But you have to realize, this is about kids losing out during the pandemic and not what happened to them during 2024 鈥� much less where they are now.鈥�

Barnett added that this methodology actually penalizes states with public preschool options, which he argued were more likely to close during the pandemic. He said this leaves the state-by-state comparisons 鈥渃olossally off.鈥�

Still, in his own research, Barnett said he has seen declining participation in state-based preschool enrollment that began even before the pandemic. He attributes this to a number of factors, including an increase in homeschooling rates, rising childcare costs, falling Head Start enrollment and declining trust in public institutions generally.

Christin Harper, policy director at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, has witnessed these challenges in her state, which saw the greatest decline in preschool enrollment, with a drop of 9 percentage points, from 50% to 41%. Like Barlow in Delaware, Harper pointed to both affordability and access issues; neither state has universal, publicly funded preschool.

showed that of the 75 counties in Arkansas, 50 face a gap of 40% or more between the number of kids under age 5 and the number of available, regulated childcare seats.

鈥淎nd not surprisingly,鈥� she added, 鈥渢hose who are more affected are going to be your rural counties.鈥�

Harper said it鈥檚 important to look at systems outside of education as well. Nationally, there was a 3% increase in the percentage of families spending more than 30% of their income on housing between 2019 and 2024, according to the Kids Count Data. But for Arkansas residents, the number putting that much of their paycheck toward rent or a mortgage spiked by 15% during that same period.

鈥淣ow, we鈥檝e got 1 out of every 4 kids in Arkansas living in a high-housing, cost-burden household and so that just shows us that wages are not keeping up with basic needs,鈥� Harper said.

And she fears this landscape will only worsen in the coming months and years. This past fall, the state鈥檚 office of Early Child Care announced sweeping changes to the School Readiness Program, including cutting rates to providers and increasing co-payments for parents. That鈥檚 in addition to federal funding reductions, neither of which are reflected in the Kids Count data. 

鈥淢ore and more, we鈥檝e heard the Trump administration talk about the need for states to take on more costs, and for poor states like Arkansas that鈥檚 going to impact us more,鈥� she said.

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 .

Appalled, Jessie turns around to find the twins鈥� discarded toys in the yard, looking worn and weary. 

鈥淲hat happened to you?鈥� Jessie asks them. 

鈥淭ech,鈥� the toys reply in unison. 

These toys explain to Jessie that, for years, technology has been 鈥渋nvading鈥� homes, capturing kids鈥� attention and effectively ending imaginative play. 

鈥淵our kid still plays?鈥� one asks. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember play.鈥�

Jessie is skeptical, so they prove it to her: The toys climb to the roof of the twins鈥� house and look across the neighborhood, where they can see the blue light from screens glowing back onto children鈥檚 faces through each window.

鈥淣o wonder she can鈥檛 make a friend,鈥� Jessie says, referring to Bonnie. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the only one out there still playing with toys.鈥� 

It鈥檚 the type of exchange that stays with you 鈥� perhaps because, when depicted in a fictional animation, it鈥檚 clear just how representative it is of our current reality. 

The latest film in Disney-Pixar鈥檚 multibillion-dollar Toy Story franchise, which was released on June 19 and pits traditional toys against digital technology, comes at exactly the right time, multiple child development and media experts said in interviews. Children, even in their early years, are awash in screens and devices, and their overwhelmed parents often don鈥檛 know how to go about establishing guardrails 鈥� or what those guardrails should even be. All of this comes as AI is emerging as a threat to children, now embedded in toys and being used to generate videos that are served to children on YouTube without any real quality checks. Meanwhile, a chorus of critics 鈥� from the to the of one of the largest teachers unions in the country 鈥� are adding their concerns to the conversation.听

鈥淚 think this is one of the most important issues of our time. I really do,鈥� said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at Brookings Institution who studies child development. 

鈥淲e are at this inflection point,鈥� she added, 鈥渨here we actually have a technology that has the capability, if used incorrectly, not just to captivate kids鈥� attention but lessen kids鈥� attention. It takes away human-to-human interaction by displacing time and their imaginations.鈥�

Indeed, 鈥淭oy Story 5鈥� addresses exactly that. Soon after Jessie learns what鈥檚 been happening to children all over the neighborhood, 8-year-old Bonnie gets a tablet of her own, a frog-shaped device called Lilypad. 

Lilypad instantly grabs hold of Bonnie鈥檚 attention. Bonnie 鈥� a child who had previously relished in the rich stories and scenes she鈥檇 created with her analog toys using just her imagination 鈥� becomes zoned out, using the device day and night. She forgets about her beloved toys and the worlds she had dreamed up for them. 

Bonnie鈥檚 parents bought her the device in hopes that it would help her make friends. After all, everyone else her age seemed to be using one. While Lilypad does help Bonnie connect with her peers through a group chat, she soon learns that鈥檚 not quite the same thing as finding a true friend. After getting invited to a sleepover that goes all wrong, Bonnie finds out that digital connection is no replacement for authentic human connection. The child becomes more and more despondent and detached as the film progresses, leading her toys 鈥� Jessie, Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang 鈥� to take charge on her behalf. They want to oust Lilypad and also help Bonnie make a real friend. 

The movie portrays technology as a force that can come at the expense of human relationships, which is often what experts warn about when it comes to children and screens. 

鈥淲e see human displacement as a very real threat,鈥� said Michelle Culver, founder of the Rithm Project, a nonprofit working to reclaim and evolve human connection in the age of AI. So she loved that 鈥淭oy Story 5鈥� was, in many ways, 鈥渁 celebration of friendship.鈥� 

Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and author of the forthcoming book 鈥淗uman Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity and Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI,鈥� felt the movie did a good job of demonstrating 鈥渉ow screen time can erode creativity and connection and lead to bullying.鈥�

鈥淓ven though the movie is about tech,鈥� Suskind said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 probably about something deeper that we鈥檙e all grappling with: the desire and the need for human connection, the important role the early years play in navigating human relationships and learning how to have relationships.鈥�

Suskind saw 鈥淭oy Story 5鈥� the day it came out. She went with two colleagues at the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health at the University of Chicago, including Liz Sablich, who brought her two young children along. 

Sablich鈥檚 7-year-old son Jack had some astute questions and observations about the film later that night, after taking some time to process what he鈥檇 seen, his mom said. One of the first things he said, Sablich recalled, was that Bonnie seemed 鈥渉ypnotized鈥� by her device 鈥� that was the word he used. 鈥淚t was like she worshipped it,鈥� Jack told his mother. 

Sablich agreed and explained that some technology is actually designed to do that. Jack wanted to know why. When she told him that, in some cases, the more a person uses the technology, the more money a company makes, he became visibly upset and said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not right. That鈥檚 not fair. They should care more about the people.鈥� 

Jack was also perplexed that Bonnie kept her device in her bedroom, right next to her bed, at all times. (Jack is only permitted access to his tablet during travel, Sablich said.) He said he never wanted to use his tablet again and didn鈥檛 want his mom to use her phone. Sablich used that opportunity to explain how technology can work for and with us, too. For example, she was able to use her phone to arrange a play date for him the next day. 鈥淲e can use it in limited ways to make it easier to play with friends and do things in the real world,鈥� she told him. 

鈥淚 was pleasantly surprised by how straightforward I thought the message of the film was and that it sparked such an important conversation,鈥� Sablich said. 

That鈥檚 exactly the type of dialogue experts are hoping the film will prompt. 

鈥淲e have to get this in the national conversation,鈥� said Hirsh-Pasek. 鈥淭he group that鈥檚 being left out of the national conversation is little kids, the 0 to 10 crowd.鈥�

The film is giving families and young children an opportunity to 鈥減ause and reflect,鈥� said Sunny Xun Liu, director of research at the Stanford Social Media Lab 鈥� and to ask some important questions.

鈥淲hat are our values as a society for technology, especially for such young children?鈥� Liu said. 鈥淲hat values should we hold together as a community and a culture about technology and screens? It gives us opportunities to think about this topic as families, communities and a society together.鈥�

That Disney, a powerhouse media brand trusted by millions of American families, opted to tackle this topic at all was 鈥渂old,鈥� Suskind said. Michael Levine, an early learning expert with more than two decades in the field of children鈥檚 media, called it 鈥済utsy.鈥�

鈥淭he fact they鈥檝e responded to the cultural moment 鈥� is really smart and, I think, brave,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ats off.鈥�

Culver, at the Rithm Project, was impressed by how much 鈥渄imension鈥� the movie had on the topic of technology, showing that, in addition to the harm devices can do, they can also help bring people together when used appropriately. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 always the opportunity for good,鈥� Suskind noted. 鈥淚t鈥檚 whether or not we make the design choices that actually allow it. I think Disney tried to show that.鈥�

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�

Both these goals could be scuttled by an alarming increase in the number of young children who lack access to healthcare. Our new shows that nearly 1.2 million children under age 6 were uninsured in 2024, and that number has been on the rise, with about 220,000 of them losing coverage between 2022 and 2024. That鈥檚 a 23% hike, larger than the increase seen for older children. It brings the rate of uninsured youngsters to its highest level in nearly a decade.听

Drawn from U.S. Census Bureau data, the numbers are a harbinger of what鈥檚 to come, given the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that Congress approved in 2025. Some under age 19 have been disenrolled since January 2025, signaling real potential for these trends to grow worse.  

The children under age 6 include newborn babies, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners 鈥� all going through key stages of brain development that require regular well-child visits and follow-up appointments to assess their physical and social-emotional health. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ evidence-based recommend 12 check-ups by age 3 to help ensure that children are developing properly and receiving necessary preventive care.

links expanding Medicaid eligibility to improved fourth and eighth grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. That likely means that health providers are identifying the sort of developmental delays and disabilities that can keep young children from learning to read 鈥� and that youngsters are receiving early interventions that can help to turn these problems around before kindergarten. These issues become harder and more expensive to address when children are older. 

Access to medical care can also ensure that children miss fewer days of school. 鈥� even in preschool and kindergarten 鈥� add up to weaker reading skills and math skills later. National trends show that young students miss the most school days in these early grades.

Our analysis found that more than half of states saw in the number or rate of uninsured young children between 2022 and 2024. Connecticut actually saw its rate drop during that period. But 16 states saw significant increases. More than 73,000 children under age 6 joined the ranks of the uninsured in Texas, where 253,000 youngsters 鈥� 1 in 10 鈥�  lack coverage. In Florida, 27,000 young children became uninsured, bringing the state鈥檚 total to nearly 104,000. In North Dakota, the number of young children is far smaller, but the rate of those uninsured jumped from 5.3% to 9.8% in just two years.

Much of the change can be attributed to the end of pandemic-era protections that kept children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program. When the federal requirement for continuous coverage expired, hundreds of thousands of children lost their insurance. 

In some cases, their families no longer qualified for the healthcare programs offered for lower-income children. But in far more instances, children lost coverage because of administrative hurdles, red tape or even .听

Most of those who lost coverage are U.S. citizens. While we do not yet have data to show trends in 2025 and 2026, we are concerned about the ways stricter immigration enforcement is creating a on Medicaid enrollment. In some places, families with children who are citizens declined to enroll them for fear that their participation could endanger family members. The Trump administration鈥檚 aggressive seem likely to exacerbate that trend. 

So will a new requirement that all low-income adults on Medicaid prove that they are looking for work. It may seem counterintuitive that a provision aimed at adults would affect health access for children, but past show that when parents lose access to Medicaid, their kids as well.

So what can states do to turn these trends around?

The first step is to ensure more young children don鈥檛 lose their health coverage. That means paying careful attention to Medicaid and CHIP, which currently cover nearly three-fourths of all low-income children under age 6. of the nation’s uninsured children were likely eligible but not enrolled in these programs in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available. Historically, that number is closer to two-thirds.

Keeping kids enrolled in Medicaid helps parents afford and needed interventions for physical and emotional health concerns in the early years. These steps pay dividends later on by preventing children from needing special education services and other costly support when they鈥檙e older.  

State leaders should review their rules to ensure new enrollment and renewal requirements for adults don鈥檛 affect their children鈥檚 coverage. They and their community partners can help families understand that changes to parents鈥� coverage need not affect children. 

Unlike adults, children in every state are entitled to 12 months of uninterrupted coverage. State lawmakers can take that a step further by monitoring children鈥檚 enrollment to ensure the state is correctly implementing for all children covered by Medicaid, and by investing in community-based outreach and enrollment assistance. 

allow continuous eligibility for young children for up to five years, keeping them covered from birth to kindergarten; many cite school readiness among their objectives. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has said it will not policies, effectively taking this promising tool off the table. 

that young children with access to health coverage are more likely than those without to graduate from high school and college, and even grow up to earn more money and pay more in taxes. Medicaid is a smart investment that can keep young children on track to learn and succeed in life, providing long-term benefits for families and society as well. States should take every possible step to protect coverage for infants, toddlers and preschoolers to maximize this investment.

Three top Senate Democrats are accusing the Trump administration and Republicans of 鈥渢aking a wrecking ball鈥� to childcare programs, highlighting the issue in a midterm year where many Democrats are running on inflation and the high cost of living.

Childcare costs have skyrocketed in recent decades, outpacing inflation. There鈥檚 bipartisan consensus on the crisis: an found that 76 percent of Americans, including over 70 percent of independents and Republicans, view the cost of childcare as 鈥渁 major problem.鈥� 

Democrats have long highlighted the issue, but many Republican politicians also agree there鈥檚 a problem 鈥� if not on the solutions to it. Republicans, who largely oppose major new spending on social programs, control the White House and both chambers of Congress, meaning that Democratic-controlled states and cities like New York City and New Mexico have been taking the lead on major investments aimed at making childcare more accessible. 

Now, in a new report, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and two fellow Senate Democrats are accusing the GOP of having 鈥渋nflamed the childcare crisis.鈥� 

The report on childcare from Schumer and Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, released Tuesday and shared first with The 19th, is the latest in a series of reports highlighting what Schumer says are the Trump administration鈥檚 鈥渂roken promises鈥� in areas including healthcare, housing and energy affordability. 

Even as childcare costs rise for families, wages for childcare providers remain low and draw fewer workers, creating a shortage of childcare slots and leaving many providers in a precarious position, especially since the funds Congress passed to stabilize the childcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic have run out.

鈥淧eople in the richest country in the world should not view child care as a financial burden,鈥� Schumer said in a statement. 鈥淪enate Democrats are fighting to lower costs while continuing to expose how Trump and his administration鈥檚 continued broken promises have led to families struggling to make ends meet.鈥�

The report from Schumer, Murray and Warren charges that President Donald Trump and Republicans have 鈥渁bandoned America鈥檚 children and families鈥� by passing tax breaks for the wealthy and pursuing the war with Iran. 

鈥淭rump promised no new wars and lower costs 鈥� he broke that promise and even insisted that America couldn鈥檛 pay for child care because we had to pay for wars instead,鈥� Murray said in a statement. 鈥淢eanwhile, Democrats are putting forward an agenda that will make life more affordable for American families in all 50 states 鈥� and we鈥檙e making high-quality, affordable child care a top priority.鈥�

The Democrats point to Trump’s comments in April, when he 鈥渢he United States can鈥檛 pay for daycare鈥� because of the conflict in the Middle East, saying: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.鈥�     

鈥淭he fact is that Trump and Republicans have done nothing to address the child care crisis in this country 鈥� in reality, they have made it worse,鈥� the report says. 鈥淩ather than lowering the costs of child care for the American people, Trump has taken a wrecking ball to federal programs and infrastructure that help American families access affordable child care.鈥澛�

The Schumer-led report charged that the Trump administration has 鈥渟ystemically attacked and undermined early childhood education programs鈥� with funding pauses, delays and personnel cuts at offices overseeing the federal government鈥檚 funding of childcare and , which funds early learning for low-income children. It also accused the administration of 鈥渨aging an all-out war鈥� on the childcare sector by freezing over $2 billion in federal childcare funds to five Democratic-controlled states over in childcare programs.  

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have introduced bipartisan proposals on childcare, and Republicans are also embracing the issue. Republican Reps. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, a candidate for U.S. Senate, and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, who is seeking reelection in a competitive district, are among the cosponsors of the recently introduced bipartisan Child Care Modernization Act. 

鈥淔amily is at the heart of everything I do, and I鈥檒l keep fighting to make it easier to raise one,鈥�  

Mackenzie highlighted the rapidly increasing costs of childcare about the bill, saying: 鈥淚t鈥檚 more important than ever that we deliver the relief and reform that working families need to thrive.鈥�  

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a fellow Pennsylvania Republican, cosponsored a bipartisan bill to expand a tax deduction for teachers to early childhood educators that . He鈥檚 also a cosponsor of the Improving Child Care for Working Families Act with Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier of Washington. 

But there鈥檚 been little appetite among Republicans for the kind of large-scale federal investments many Democrats argue are needed to make childcare affordable and accessible nationwide. Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York , the Childcare for Every Community Act, which proposes new federal investments to create universal and affordable childcare. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Republicans鈥� party-line tax-and-spending bill passed last year, expanded some childcare subsidies and tax credits used by parents and employers, changes that experts said primarily benefit middle- and higher-income families. The Democrats鈥� report noted that childcare costs are especially burdensome for the lowest-income families and that 鈥渕any parents 鈥� disproportionately women 鈥� are forced out of the labor market as they simply cannot afford the high cost of care.鈥� 

Democrats have also criticized the bill for cutting Medicaid and food assistance programs, which many of the lowest-income families rely on. Federal cuts, combined with the COVID-era federal childcare funds running out and other economic pressures, have, in turn, .

鈥淎mericans are drowning under child care costs that just keep going up, and instead of doing anything to fix it, Donald Trump slashed the programs that help families afford care and gave billion-dollar tax handouts to giant corporations,鈥� Warren said in a statement. 鈥淔ixing the affordability crisis in this country means delivering universal child care, and Democrats are fighting to get it done.鈥�

In the absence of major federal action, some Democratic-controlled states and cities are leading the charge on universal childcare. And as Democrats focus on affordability in their messaging ahead of the 2026 midterms, candidates across the country are campaigning on universal childcare, universal pre-K and early childhood education.    

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who and is working with Gov. Kathy Hochul to phase in his childcare plan, recently made New York the first city to open . New Mexico also became the first state in the country to families last year. 

The state鈥檚 departing Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told The 19th that New Mexico鈥檚 investment also raised salaries and expanded benefits for childcare providers, a woman-dominated industry. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hat America embraces universal childcare.鈥�  

鈥淲hen people refer to states like ours that still have some deep-rooted poverty issues, if we can do it, then anyone can do it,鈥� Lujan Grisham said in an April interview. 鈥淚’m not suggesting that it is a quick, 24-hour fix. 鈥� It took us all this time to build it out, but it is doable. And I think it could be some of the most important, impactful set of services and legislation for New Mexico families, and then a blueprint for American families, since the FDR investments in Social Security.鈥�

In remarks at the Center for American Progress鈥� IDEAS conference last month, Warren argued that Republicans are 鈥渇umbling the childcare issue at the most basic level.鈥� She also criticized her own party for not making major investments in childcare in its major party-line spending bills when Democrats controlled Congress for the first two years of President Joe Biden鈥檚 presidency, saying 鈥渨e lost childcare because not enough Democrats who were already in office were willing to fight for it.鈥�

鈥淚t would be political malpractice for Democrats not to be talking about childcare every chance we get, going into the midterms and beyond,鈥� Warren said. 鈥淲hen I look at the upcoming Democratic presidential primary, every 2028 candidate who understands what鈥檚 happening in this country, who wants to win, and who will deliver for families, will make universal childcare a core piece of their agenda.鈥�   

was originally reported by Grace Panetta of . Meet Grace and of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

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.

In the first years after birth, the human brain develops at a remarkable pace. Every second, more than a  connections spring into being, shaping .

Since the Trump administration entered the White House last year, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of that pivotal time in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE has dramatically increased detentions of children aged 3 and under, holding 25 of them in custody on an average day between January 2025 and March of this year, according to a new analysis by The Marshall Project and MS NOW of records obtained by the , a group of academics and lawyers who collect and share federal immigration data. That number is 10 times higher than it was in the previous 12 months under former President Joe Biden. Back then, on an average day, fewer than three babies and toddlers were held at facilities across the country.

Parents in ICE detention have complained of substandard conditions that frequently left their young children sick, isolated and regressing in their physical and intellectual development.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the dramatic increase in the number of young children in detention; but, in an emailed statement, an agency spokesperson said families with children receive appropriate food, water and medical care. In a separate statement, CoreCivic 鈥撯�� the private company that operates the primary ICE facility used to detain families 鈥撯�� echoed that its facilities were safe for infants and toddlers.

Marsha Griffin, a pediatrics professor and co-founder of the executive committee of the , called the period of infancy and toddlerhood 鈥減robably the most harmful time of their lives to have them in detention.鈥�

鈥淥ur immigration system is breaking children,鈥� she said.

In March, Joani, her husband, and their 2-year-old son, Kaleth, showed up to a check-in appointment with immigration officials in California. Since the family immigrated and sought asylum in 2024, they had never missed a required appointment with immigration officials, according to the family鈥檚 lawyer. Nevertheless, that day, ICE took them all into custody.

As the whole family cried, Kaleth鈥檚 father was handcuffed and driven away to an adult detention facility in California. Joani and her toddler were taken to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, the primary U.S. immigration facility that holds families with children.

At the family鈥檚 request, we are identifying Kaleth and Joani by their first names only.

Separated from his father, Kaleth was despondent in the Dilley facility, Joani said in an interview. He repeatedly scooted a tiny table over to a phone that was mounted on the wall, so he could climb up high enough to try to use it. Each time, Joani moved the table away so he wouldn鈥檛 fall. Even if he could have reached the phone, contacting his father in another detention center would have been impossible.

Kaleth stopped eating for 12 days. Joani said facility doctors attributed it to depression. When Joani tried to force him to eat, Kaleth vomited. He eventually stopped having bowel movements. Joani watched her son鈥檚 face grow gaunt, and his eyes sink into their sockets.

Lori Goodman, the CEO of , a nonprofit group that supports families with young children in California and has worked with Kaleth鈥檚 family, said children his age may express trauma physically, since they have fewer verbal skills.

鈥淗e was so distressed that it manifested in his body in not being able to eat or digest,鈥� said Goodman. 鈥淭he longer a child is in that setting, the more the long-term damage.鈥�

The most recent data available shows many very young children have spent prolonged periods of time in custody. Between Trump鈥檚 second inauguration and March of this year, ICE held at least 175 babies and toddlers for longer than a court-mandated time limit of 20 days. A federal judge interpreted 20 days to be the limit for detaining children in a 2015 opinion on the  which governs the treatment of children in immigration detention.

During the last year of the Biden administration, no children aged 3 or younger were held beyond the settlement鈥檚 20-day limit. Biden had ended the practice of family detention in 2021, and the Dilley facility, which had mostly housed families, eventually closed. Trump restarted the practice and reopened Dilley shortly after retaking office.

In a May  submitted by ICE as required by the Flores settlement, the agency said it 鈥渨orks to assess cases and discharge minors from custody as promptly as possible.鈥�

Alsu and Azat fled Russia last year, fearing that their opposition to the war in Ukraine would land them in prison and their 1-year-old, Amir, in an orphanage.

The family had braced themselves to spend a few weeks in immigration confinement upon arriving in the United States after crossing the southern border without visas, and presented themselves to authorities at a legal port of entry. But, as their incarceration stretched on, first in California and then at Dilley, they watched their once-lively son withdraw and begin hitting himself in the face.

鈥淲e came here to escape prison. We wanted to be free,鈥� Azat said through a translator. 鈥淏ut once we arrived in America, we spent four months in detention.鈥�

Dilley didn鈥檛 have many toys for toddlers, Amir鈥檚 parents said, and some desperate children resorted to playing with rocks. Even though Alsu and Azat knew it was important to read with him, they couldn鈥檛 find books in their native language of Russian. Amir鈥檚 speech development slowed. Eventually, he stopped saying anything other than two words: 鈥渕om鈥� and 鈥渄ad.鈥�

Griffin, the pediatrics professor, said it鈥檚 imperative for parents to talk to their children to help them develop vocabulary. But the fear and stress of incarceration can cause both parents and children to become quiet.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to talk, and no one鈥檚 talking to them, not in a normal way,鈥� said Griffin. She noted that the experience can also damage the parent-child bond, as a child witnesses their parent鈥檚 loss of control.

Rahil Briggs, a psychologist at the early-childhood advocacy organization , said these types of developmental setbacks can have a domino effect.

“If we miss this foundational time in early childhood when we see all these wonderful things going on in brain development with memory and learning and executive functioning, then it’s just harder than ever to catch up,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥滻 can鈥檛 learn my ABCs because I鈥檝e got to make sure that I鈥檓 safe in this scary situation. And because I haven鈥檛 learned my ABCs, now I’m not sure how to do this, and I’m not reading.鈥�

Keeping Amir properly fed was another challenge.

According to Amir鈥檚 mother, Alsu, employees at Dilley forced her to wean him off formula, claiming he was too old. The solid food options, Alsu insisted, were not appropriate for a 1-year-old. She described being so desperate to get Amir to eat, that she sucked a spicy pasta sauce off noodles so she could feed them to her son. She and Azat resorted to hiding cereal from the dining hall at breakfast in their socks and hoods for later, so their child wouldn鈥檛 go to sleep hungry.

鈥淓very single day, I would break down, hysterical, because my child had gone without proper food,鈥� said Alsu.

After they argued with staff members to get Amir better food, Azat alleges that employees in CoreCivic uniforms woke him up in the middle of the night, threatening to send the parents to separate immigrant confinement centers and Amir to foster care if they didn鈥檛 stop complaining.

鈥淎s a husband, as a father, I can see the sufferings of my child, I can see how much my wife suffers,鈥� Azat said. 鈥淚t was horrific for me, because I could do nothing to help them.鈥�

Both Amir鈥檚 and Kaleth鈥檚 parents said their children suffered fevers and stomach problems during their incarceration at Dilley and that they struggled to get them adequate treatment. Many other parents have reported similar challenges accessing care inside facilities, including waiting for hours in line to get basic, over-the-counter medication.

Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor who has represented more than 80 children and parents incarcerated at Dilley over the past year, said that nearly all of her clients in recent months complained about poor medical care.

鈥淜ids at this age also get sick more easily because their immune systems haven’t developed,鈥� Mukherjee said. 鈥淗aving such young children in a prison setting with hundreds of other kids and parents, it just makes them repeatedly, constantly sick. So they have fevers, they’re coughing, they’re vomiting, they have diarrhea. They are just miserable.鈥�

Amalia and her parents were incarcerated at Dilley when the 1-year-old developed a fever and grew lethargic. Speaking through a translator, her parents said they returned to Dilley鈥檚 medical clinic again and again, but were only given Tylenol for her and warned not to complain. When Amalia鈥檚 mother, Kheilin Valero Marcano, went back to the clinic after her daughter lost consciousness, she recalled asking clinic employees, 鈥淗ow long are you going to leave her like this? Are you going to let her die?鈥�

According to the family, Amalia eventually spent more than a week in an outside hospital, after her oxygen levels dropped to dangerously low levels. There she was diagnosed with COVID-19, an ear infection, pneumonia, bronchitis and RSV, a common but potentially serious childhood illness that affects the lungs.

According to , facilities should transfer sick people to an outside hospital if they cannot provide adequate care onsite.

Leecia Welch, a lawyer with Children鈥檚 Rights who has visited Dilley more than 10 times, said that babies and toddlers, many too young to receive certain vaccinations, had some of the most troubling medical cases she鈥檇 seen, calling the situation 鈥渢he most gut-wrenching.鈥�

Welch recalled mothers in detention describing how stress and lack of nutritious food made breastfeeding difficult. Marcano said Amalia would cry throughout the night, because she鈥檇 tried to nurse and nothing would come out.

Other parents, whose babies drank formula, have stated in court documents that the facility did not provide enough bottled water to hydrate powdered formula, and purchasing additional water at the commissary was, for many, prohibitively expensive. Tap water at the facility, families said, smelled foul and made children sick.

Parents also described difficulties getting children to sleep. The lights in the Dilley facility were kept on all night, and toys that can help kids sleep are prohibited in living areas.

鈥淭hey can’t go to sleep with a stuffed animal,鈥� said Welch 鈥淭hey can’t go to sleep with a security blanket, that’s just not allowed.鈥�

Representatives for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, did not answer specific questions about the sorts of conditions experienced by Kaleth, Amir, or Amalia. In a past , Homeland Security disputed Amalia鈥檚 family鈥檚 claims and insisted she 鈥渋mmediately received proper medical care.鈥�

Brian Todd, a CoreCivic spokesman, responded in an email that the Dilley facility provides toddlers and babies necessary supplies, including formula, healthy food and clean drinking water.

An ICE spokesperson made similar claims in an emailed statement and noted that the agency 鈥渋s working rapidly and overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination 鈥� home.鈥� In a May court filing, an ICE report stated that people are provided with an eye mask when they arrive at Dilley and, following complaints, the facility switched to lower-intensity lighting, though they remain on all night for security purposes. Agency officials also stated in the filings that water quality is monitored, babies under the age of 1 receive bottled water to make formula, and children have access to outdoor play structures, toys, multilingual books, and age-appropriate meals and snacks.

A  lawyers for detained children called ICE鈥檚 claims 鈥渇anciful.鈥�

ICE released Kaleth and his mother in April, two weeks after their incarceration, and they were later reunited with Kaleth鈥檚 father. According to Mukherjee, Kaleth had not eaten solid food the entire time. In the car from the airport, he devoured four packets of applesauce.

Kaleth has since recovered remarkably, said Goodman, the LEAP CEO 鈥� a testament to the family鈥檚 resilience and the strength of their parental bonds. She鈥檚 seen how Kaleth鈥檚 mother looks into his eyes, and comforts him when he is distressed.

鈥淭hat is so powerful at counteracting the abuse that our government is perpetrating,鈥� Goodman said.

Amalia and her family  after spending two months in Dilley.

Amir and his parents were also released, under supervision, in January. The toddler, now 2 years old, is laughing and speaking more, and he has stopped hitting himself. His parents say he seems closer to the happy child he was before ICE imprisoned him.

Even so, it鈥檚 too early to tell what the long-term effects of child incarceration will be on the hundreds of babies and toddlers who have gone through ICE detention since Trump re-entered the White House.

鈥淭he long-term damage caused by prolonged toxic stress 鈥� by essentially abusing these children 鈥� we鈥檙e going to see those effects. They鈥檙e going to impact every child who was there for many, many years to come,” Goodman said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 incalculable the amount of damage that is being done.鈥�

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.

On Friday, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law, which allows retirees taking care of children to access the state鈥檚 childcare assistance program.

For eligible families, the NH Child Care Scholarship Program provides funds for childcare through direct payments to daycare and out鈥搊f鈥搒chool time providers for children up to 13 years old, and through 17 for a child with disabilities.

SB 608 requirement for kinship caregivers who are retired and at federal retirement age. Previously, parents and guardians were required to be working, looking for work, in a training program, or in school. Families still have to meet state income eligibility requirements, which require them to make 85% or less of the state median income to qualify.

The law also requires the state to ask the federal government if family care support services are 鈥渁n allowable service鈥� under the Acquired Brain Disorder, Choices for Independence, and Community-Based Service waiver programs.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@newhampshirebulletin.com.

California is doing something about diaper insecurity for its residents. Gov. Gavin Newsom that the state will provide 400 free diapers to families with newborn babies, beginning with hospitals that predominantly serve low-income households, before expanding more broadly.

Diaper need is a serious challenge for many families. of U.S. households with children under age 4 in diapers report diaper insecurity, according to a nationally representative study from the nonprofit National Diaper Bank Network. An infant typically goes through diapers in a day. At , the annual diaper cost for one baby can run roughly $1,000 during the first year. These costs hit during a period when families are often due to the combination of baby-related costs and employment challenges driven in part by America鈥檚 .听

The consequences can be harmful: When parents can鈥檛 afford enough diapers, they may turn to alternatives like using plastic bags or towels to make their own diapers, or reusing wet or soiled diapers. These practices can lead to severe diaper rash and urinary tract infections. In my work, I have spoken to childcare providers who describe the phenomenon of 鈥淢onday morning rash,鈥� when babies arrive after having diapers stretched over the weekend.

Cloth diapers present an alternative that can save parents a lot of money, but they for many families because they require up front costs, need frequent laundering 鈥� which can increase utility bills 鈥� and importantly, because many center-based childcare programs won鈥檛 allow them.  

In fact, many childcare providers require parents to provide disposable diapers, and if they鈥檙e unable to do so, they may not be allowed to drop their children off. In of Connecticut diaper bank users, more than half of parent participants who relied on childcare programs reported missing work due to a lack of diapers, with an average of four missed days per month.

While the long-term solution to diaper need likely lies in ensuring all families have access to reliable and well-paying jobs, a statewide program like California鈥檚 Golden Gate Start can provide a strong preventative intervention that can set families off on the right foot, helping them leave the hospital with one less worry while they try to figure out how to care for the beloved, squalling creature that鈥檚 coming home without an instruction manual. In practice, the 400 diapers, which come in varying sizes, should cover about a month鈥檚 supply.

California is not the first state to try to tackle diaper insecurity. Illinois has, since 2023, been utilizing Diaper Dollars, a statewide initiative that sends out a monthly $40 e-card to eligible families that can be used to purchase diapers at various stores, and the idea has since spread to Ohio. In 2024, Tennessee to families enrolled in the state鈥檚 Medicaid system, although the program is being as the state legislature tries to shore up healthcare budget holes. 

California鈥檚 model, though, may have the most straightforward delivery system. Diaper Dollars has faced challenges because the stipends can only be used at participating stores and some major retailers don鈥檛 currently accept that form of payment, while Tennessee struggled with coverage because it delivered the benefit via pharmacies, and left many families lacking options. California鈥檚 use of hospitals is innovative, though it does mean only a one-time infusion of diapers versus an ongoing supply.

Despite the fact that California鈥檚 program seems like a clear win, it has . While plausibly driven by animus toward Newsom, a , commentators have focused on the fact that a nonprofit with connections to Newsom鈥檚 wife, Baby2Baby, is involved in the administration of the free diapers. Some see Newsom鈥檚 free diaper program as politically flashy but economically tokenistic, that giving new parents 400 diapers does little to solve the real reason California feels unaffordable 鈥� especially the state鈥檚 severe housing shortage and high cost of living. Others suggest routing diapers through a nonprofit and hospitals may cost taxpayers more than simply handing families cash directly.

This argument almost entirely misses the point. While it鈥檚 always worth watching the implementation of a benefit to make sure the government is working efficiently, the question on the table is whether there is a public interest in helping all parents and babies get off to a strong and healthy start. As conservative analyst Patrick T. Brown in his Family Matters Substack, 鈥渆ven if the program design could theoretically stand to be improved, it hardly deserves the scorn being directed at it. … Sometimes a program can be good without being perfect; and sometimes we should do a better job resisting the temptation to hold our political opponents鈥� ideas to a higher standard than our own side鈥檚.鈥�

Indeed, American families would surely welcome a race among states to figure out how to most effectively support them in securing an adequate diaper supply. Babies need diapers, but especially as the cost of living continues to rise, not every American family is in a position to provide them. California is taking action: That in itself is worthy of praise 鈥� and one way or another, there will be important lessons to learn.