When Child Care Disappears, Schools Feel the Consequences

Summary for Educators

Based on Moriah Balingit and Lauren Coffey

“Hundreds of Thousands of Eligible Kids Are Waiting for Childcare Assistance”

EdSurge / The Associated Press | September 3, 2026

A nationwide AP investigation found that hundreds of thousands of children were on government-funded child-care assistance waitlists in 23 states and the District of Columbia as of spring 2026. Three additional states were turning away many eligible applicants. The consequences reach far beyond child care, affecting parents’ ability to work or attend school, family finances, foster care, and ultimately the children who will enter America’s schools. (EdSurge)

Read the original EdSurge article

🔵 THE BIG IDEA

The child-care crisis is often described as a problem for parents of young children. For education leaders, that definition is far too narrow.

Federal child-care assistance is intended to help qualifying low-income working parents, families experiencing homelessness, and foster families afford care so parents can remain employed or pursue education. Yet the AP investigation found that waitlists have expanded dramatically: in 2023, eight states had waiting lists; by spring 2026, children were waiting in 23 states plus Washington, D.C. (EdSurge)

A major turning point came after $28 billion in pandemic-era child-care assistance expired in fall 2024. Some states subsequently increased their own spending, but demand has continued to exceed available assistance. (EdSurge)

For K–12 leaders, this is an early-childhood story with downstream consequences. A child's readiness for school cannot be separated completely from the stability of the family bringing that child to kindergarten.

🔵 KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR EDUCATORS

• Recognize the extraordinary scale. This is not a small group falling through bureaucratic cracks. Hundreds of thousands of eligible children were waiting for assistance across much of the country. (EdSurge)

• Understand the workforce connection. Parents interviewed by reporters described being unable to work full time because they could not afford care. Others remained employed only by making severe financial sacrifices. (EdSurge)

• See child care as an educational issue. Parents may also be prevented from attending college or job training. Some families have resorted to bringing children to work or class because they could find no viable alternative. (EdSurge)

• Pay attention to foster families. The investigation found particularly troubling cases involving foster children, including a child who remained in foster care after his mother had satisfied requirements for reunification but could not afford child care. (EdSurge)

• Remember that eligibility does not guarantee access. Families can meet program requirements and still receive no assistance because available funding is exhausted.

• Consider the cumulative effects on children. Financial instability, unpredictable caregiving arrangements, parental employment disruption, and family stress do not necessarily disappear when children reach the schoolhouse door.

◻️ WHY IT MATTERS

Consider the dilemma facing the families described in the investigation.

One Indiana mother needed child-care assistance to increase her employment, yet could not afford the child care necessary to work more hours. Her husband was working seven days a week, the family had refinanced its home, and a local provider's discount allowed her son to attend care for only four mornings each week while she cleaned at a hospital. (EdSurge)

Another parent reportedly stopped buying groceries and relied on food banks in order to afford infant care. (EdSurge)

These are not simply child-care statistics. They illustrate a circular problem:

Parents need child care to work.
They need work to support their children.
Yet without affordable child care, they may be unable to work enough to achieve financial stability.

Schools cannot solve that problem alone. But school leaders should understand it because districts are often among the institutions best positioned to recognize struggling families, connect them with community resources, collaborate with early-childhood providers, and advocate for children.

🟢 LEADERSHIP ACTION STEPS

✓ Map the child-care and early-learning providers serving families in your district.

✓ Ask incoming kindergarten families whether access to affordable child care or preschool has been a significant barrier.

✓ Partner with community agencies to make information about subsidies, Head Start, pre-K, and other family supports easier to find.

✓ Include early-childhood providers in district conversations about kindergarten transition and school readiness.

✓ Examine whether district facilities could support partnerships with community-based early-childhood programs where legally and financially feasible.

✓ Track whether child-care instability appears alongside attendance, mobility, homelessness, or other challenges affecting families with school-age siblings.

✓ Advocate for policies based on what educators observe locally. School leaders can bring an important perspective to public discussions about the relationship between early childhood, family stability, and later educational success.

🟡 LEADER REFLECTION

Public education traditionally begins when a child walks through the schoolhouse door.

But should educational leadership begin earlier?

If unstable child care prevents parents from working, pushes families deeper into financial insecurity, disrupts children's early experiences, and affects the circumstances under which those children eventually arrive in kindergarten, then early-childhood policy is not someone else's problem.

Perhaps the question for K–12 leaders is not:

“Is child care part of our responsibility?”

It is:

“What happens to our students when the system before kindergarten fails their families?” (EdSurge)

Original Article

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (5.2) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com