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Note: Data reflect share of enrollments, not of total children by age. Family, friend, and neighbor arrangements are not included. Some children use multiple types of care, and many children are not enrolled in any child care program.

The parents are not all right. Between financial strain and rising costs, balancing work and caregiving responsibilities, and navigating how to best support children’s well-being during trying times, parents — especially those with young kids — are feeling overwhelmed. Multiple surveys of American parents over the past few years have revealed that pressures are mounting.

Two children play at the Washington preschool Head Start. (Michela Meucci) This March, Mary Ellen Lykins, a director of 10 Head Start centers serving around 200 kids in northwest Washington, submitted a seemingly simple application to the federal government: She wanted to convert one of her partial-day preschool classrooms into a full-day program, extending the hours to better support the families she serves.

Prospective home buyers are often experiencing transition in their personal lives. Perhaps a wedding — or divorce — is on the horizon. Maybe their kids have grown up and moved out, or their financial circumstances have changed. In many cases, though, people are looking to move because they want to start or grow their families, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, a real estate brokerage — making the matter of childcare particularly relevant to their search.

Meghan Gallagher/The 74/Canva This story was co-published with Mother Jones. A few years ago, Eric Gil was living at his uncle’s place in Waterbury, Connecticut, where he shared a bedroom with his brother and cousin. With eight people in the house, it was crowded. Sign up to get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. He was trying to get out, but rental prices in Waterbury — which currently average $1,600 a month — were prohibitively expensive.

A.J. Johnson’s oldest son was born in 2019, the year before residents of his home state of Washington could receive benefits from its newly passed paid family leave program. Johnson, a full-time firefighter, had to save up accrued sick leave to take time off around his son’s birth.

Head Start is “much, much more than childcare. It’s even much more than preschool. That’s where the standards start coming into play,” said Nancy Baker, Head Start director for Butler County Educational Service Center. A child in one of the center’s 16 Head Start sites in southwest Ohio. (Photo courtesy of Nancy Baker) Most of Cassie Reed’s life has been marked by instability. During her childhood, she moved between nine different foster homes, often enduring abuse.

As book bans surge nationwide, Jan Lacina — professor at Texas Christian University and associate editor of the Early Childhood Education Journal — explores the benefits of diverse children’s literature in her new textbook for educators, “Children’s Literature to Read Our World.” The research-grounded guide aims to help teachers intentionally select books for their students, centering age-appropriate books that present Black, Latinx and Asian culture as wellsprings of understanding.

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States are in a tough bind as they contemplate how to address childcare needs. The extra federal money from the pandemic era is gone just as they are trying to swallow higher spending and cost shifts mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Republicans passed last year. Some states have pulled back on childcare spending, leading to a drop in spots and longer waitlists for the ones that remain.