Rates of child care and employment disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic for households with children under age 5: Variation by household characteristics

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (and globally), children and their families began experiencing severe disruptions to schooling and child care. By the end of March 2020, all but one U.S. public school district was closed in response to COVID-19,¹ and at the start of the 2020-21 school year 74 percent of the largest school districts remained closed for in-person instruction.² While more likely to stay open compared to K-12 schools, about two thirds of child care centers were closed in April 2020 and one third remained closed in April 2021.³ In addition to being disruptive to children’s learning⁴ and well-being,⁵ these closures disrupted many parents’ abilities to work, with many parents (disproportionally mothers) reducing work hours or leaving the workforce altogether in order to care for children.⁶

In 2021, many child care settings re-opened⁷ as in-person learning became safer due to improved knowledge of how to keep children and staff healthy amidst the pandemic (e.g., improved cleaning procedures, keeping children in smaller than typical groups) and increased availability and administration of vaccines for adults. Despite re-openings, however, child care (and thus employment) disruptions continued due to ongoing illnesses among staff and children, staff needing to care for their sick family members, and workforce shortages.^8,9 Importantly, child care and employment disruptions were not felt equally among all children and families. Prior studies among families and households with children under age 18 have found that Black and Latino^a households and families experienced significantly higher rates of child care disruptions compared to White families, and households with lower incomes experienced higher rates of disruptions than those with higher incomes.^10-12 Higher rates of child care disruptions within these groups are an equity concern because pandemic-related care disruptions have been linked with elevated emotional distress and anxiety and decreased well-being for parents.^13-16

On average, Black and Hispanic individuals, as well as those with lower incomes, had fewer resources with which to respond to sudden and prolonged child care disruptions than others due to the nature of their employment. More specifically, due to historical inequities in who could access higher education,^17,18 buy homes in desirable neighborhoods,¹⁹ and build wealth,²⁰ Black and Hispanic workers and workers with lower incomes are less likely to work in jobs with flexibility to shift hours, have ample paid time off, and have the ability to telework compared to White individuals and those with higher incomes.^21-23 Indeed, likely related to these pre-existing differences in employment features, Black and Hispanic households with children under 18, as well as those with lower incomes, were more likely to report losing a job or taking unpaid leave. They were also less likely to report taking paid time off in response to child care disruptions in the Spring of 2021 compared to White and Asian households, and households with higher incomes.^24-28

In this report, we describe rates of child care disruptions and employment-related responses to those disruptions (i.e., losing pay, taking paid leave, not working or not searching for a job, supervising children while working) from July 2021 to May 2022 for households with children under age 5, both overall and by five household characteristics. Those characteristics include race/ethnicity, household income, the number of adults in the household, employment status, and telework status. This report adds to our understanding of child care disruptions and households’ employment-related responses to disruptions in two important ways:

• Focus on households with children under age 5. While all households with children were prone to disruptions in child care caused by the pandemic, households with children under age 5 were particularly vulnerable for several reasons. First, children under age 5 require more supervision from caregivers than older children, who on average may be able to participate in remote learning or other activities with less adult intervention. Second, more adults are required to care for younger than older children in child care facilities,²⁹ which means that staff shortages in child care settings were likely to be more disruptive for younger children (compared to older children). Third, parents with young children are more likely to live in poverty compared to parents of older children, who have fewer child care expenses and are often further along in their careers.³⁰ Finally, vaccines for children ages 6 months to 5 years were not available until June 2022, eight months later than vaccines for children ages 5 through 11³¹ —thus, households with children under age 5 may have experienced ongoing disruptions for a longer duration. Indeed, the only study to compare national estimates of child care disruptions by age of children in the household found that disruptions were more prevalent among households with children from birth to age 5 (38.6%) than households with children ages 13 to 17 in 2020 (7.5%).³² It is important to understand patterns of disruptions for households with younger children specifically, as this group was particularly vulnerable to disruptions but has not been the focus of prior research.
• Examine additional household characteristics. While differences in child care disruptions and responses to disruptions by race/ethnicity and income have been documented for households with any children, national estimates broken down by these characteristics have not been reported separately for households with any children under age 5. Moreover, it is largely unknown whether child care disruptions and responses to disruptions differ by other important household characteristics, like the number of adults in the household and household members’ employment and telework statuses. In general, we would expect to see greater disruptions and harsher employment-related consequences for groups for whom barriers to taking paid leave, teleworking, or finding alternative care during disruptions are the greatest. For instance, households that have more than one adult living in the household might be able to rely on (or prefer) other family members to provide child care during the pandemic rather than using a more formal child care arrangement, and so might have experienced fewer child care disruptions compared to households with fewer adults in the household. Respondents who were employed may have had a greater need for child care, have needed care for longer hours, and potentially have needed a greater number of child care arrangements than respondents who were not employed. Each of these conditions could increase the likelihood of experiencing child care disruptions. Parents who telework or have household members teleworking might also take turns caring for their children³³ to avoid child care disruptions, and those who could not telework may have experienced greater disruptions. These characteristics are also likely to be associated with how households respond to child care disruptions (e.g., whether they have the flexibility to supervise children while working). Understanding whether and how child care disruptions and responses to disruptions differ across groups can help us gain a more nuanced understanding of the different ways that child care disruptions have been experienced by households with young children during the pandemic.

Overall, findings from this report add to the literature on child care disruptions during the pandemic, and provide new insights into disruptions and how those disruptions affect families with our youngest learners.

---