Crisis and Opportunity: Building a Better Child Care System

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. last year, it has become clear that the U.S. child care system is broken. The child care crisis brought on by the pandemic has been a disaster for women’s participation in the workforce and, by extension, for gender equality and the economy as a whole. But our child care system has long been inadequate when it comes to meeting the needs of working parents.
The recently passed $1.9 trillion stimulus bill includes funding to address some immediate and long-standing issues in the child care industry. It’s a huge win for families, and particularly for working parents and the system of care that makes it possible for them to work. Now, where do we go from here? How do we take advantage of this opportunity to rebuild the system from the ground up? During this presentation, panelists discussed what the Biden-Harris administration has done so far to support the child care industry, and what still needs to be done -- not only to recover economically from COVID-19, but to build a sustainable child care system in the U.S., thereby advancing gender equality.
Panelists:
Dr. Kimberly D. Lucas is the Senior Director of Civic Research and Innovation at MetroLab Network, a collaborative of universities and local governments focused on driving research-informed policy and innovation. Part researcher and part practitioner, Kim has consistently kept one foot in the ivory tower and one foot on the ground, pairing research and data with practice to seek real solutions to social policy and planning problems. Questioning who we think of as ‘expert’ and how stakeholders identify ‘value’ are common threads that pervade their work. Kim’s research focuses on the mechanisms that drive both the supply and demand of local early childhood markets, including understanding family child care provider business needs as well as tracking changing child care preferences among families. Prior to their work with MetroLab, Kim served as the Civic Research Director and then Open Data Manager at the City of Boston. Kim holds an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and Child Development from Tufts University, and a doctorate in Social Policy and Sociology from Brandeis University.
Dr. Wendy Wagner Robeson is a senior research scientist with the Work, Families, and
Children Research Group at the Wellesley Centers for Women and lecturer in Wellesley
College’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. Wendy has an extensive research
background in child development. Since the beginning of the pandemic she has worked with early childhood education advocates from across the state to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the child care and education industry. She has also worked with the City of Boston on projects involving families living through Covid as well as work with the city’s family child care providers. In late 2020, Kim and Wendy co-authored a report on family stresses and child care preferences in Boston during the pandemic, which was published by the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Women’s Advancement. Currently, Wendy is interviewing parents from across the state to learn how they and their families have coped with work, school, child care and the pandemic. Wendy holds a masters degree in early childhood education from the University of Houston and a doctorate in language development from Harvard Graduate School of Education.