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Families across America, particularly those with young children, are struggling this summer. 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. Sign up to get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. That’s according to numerousrecentsurveys that have asked families how they are faring.

Family preferences on childcare arrangements vary, sometimes wildly, but many parents consistently report a desire to be able to care for their young children themselves and for trusted family, friends and neighbors to be able to do so. Childcare policy, though, has historically been designed without fully accounting for what families actually say they want.

Zayn Maxwell, 5, receives a recording device in a purple vest as part of the Lena Grow program at Dodge County Head Start in Fremont, Nebraska. (Rebecca Elder) On a mid-June morning in the small city of Norfolk, Nebraska, a group of 2- and 3-year-olds clumsily ran around a playroom wearing identical purple cloth vests.

The last time I interviewed Dr. Dana Suskind, we discussed the three T’s strategy outlined in her book “Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise”: Tune in. Talk more. Take turns.

When Joel Francik became principal of Central Elementary School in 2019, all of his prior education experience had been in middle school — first as a teacher, then as an assistant principal. He wanted the job, he said, because he thought he could make a bigger difference in students’ lives if he met them earlier in their schooling. But he didn’t know a whole lot about how kids in elementary school — particularly those in the early grades — learned best or what they really needed.

The percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in school dropped during the most recently available five-year lookback window of federal data, though that picture is likely clouded by COVID-era school closures. The decline was cited in the Kids Count Data Book, 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.

Stephania Zamorano has been an educator in New York City for 15 years. Since 2021, she has worked at Imagine Early Learning Centers, a childcare organization that serves nearly 600 children across 12 sites, soon to be 13, in the New York metropolitan area. Zamorano described her time at Imagine as quite different from her past employers. She receives higher pay, experiences less stress and has something rare for early educators — ownership in the company.

In one of the opening scenes of “Toy Story 5,” Jessie — a cowgirl doll — tries to find out why the twins who live across the street never want to play with her owner Bonnie. What she finds, when she peers through the window of the neighbor’s home, is the two young children on a couch totally absorbed in their tablets, ignoring each other and oblivious to everything around them. Appalled, Jessie turns around to find the twins’ discarded toys in the yard, looking worn and weary.

In June 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Nestling House, a childcare center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was preparing to reopen after closing down in mid-March, like so many other childcare programs around the country. It would be a process, with some rooms ready before others, and the leadership team knew things would be different once the center reopened. Nestling House typically operated with a dozen staff who served over 30 children from age 6 weeks to 12 years old.

It is widely accepted in the field of early care and education that staff turnover is high, but exactly how high has proven difficult to measure. A recent analysis from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska offers new insights into the extent of the field’s attrition rates, finding that only 56% of the early care and education workforce that was active in 2023 remained active two years later. Sign up to get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox.