Remote work and child care closures hasten need to revamp fragile child care system

A Bipartisan Policy Center report describes new survey results assessing how parents’ work arrangements are interacting with their child care needs. Results suggest that 81 percent of working parents with children under 5 who have the option to work remote are utilizing that option. Most parents (60 percent) would like to keep this option to some extent moving forward to enable flexibility of childcare. This is particularly relevant for parents with inconsistent or nontraditional work hours, which disproportionately includes Black, less educated, and low-income parents. The survey shows that only 29 percent of parents had access to the same childcare situation as pre-pandemic, and threequarters of parents said they had missed a full day of work in the past month due to child care constraints. Finally, respondents across the political spectrum expressed support for high-quality child care access, with 95 percent of liberals and 79 percent of conservatives agreeing that more government support of child care would benefit children and families. #covid-19 #childcare #workforce