Regional & Community Outreach - Issue Brief 2025-1 - Child-care usage and access challenges during COVID-19 and the economic recovery

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle

The COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and deepened constraints on the child-care market that make accessing child care challenging. Inaccessible child care can be a barrier to work, with implications for parents’ labor force participation. While impacts on providers and families who suddenly lost access are widely studied, less is known about the finer details of access challenges and how they varied. This brief analyzes child-care demand and access across pandemic stages to assess how supply disruptions affected families’ ability to meet care needs, using survey data from nearly 2,100 New England mothers with children under age 6.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages29

Reading Time1 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Key findings

Introduction

Background

Access challenges and COVID-19

Methodology

Sample characteristics

The survey

Access measures

Analysis

Care usage from recollections to expectations

Care usage by subgroup

Discussion

Conclusion

Appendix

Definitions

Limitations

Table A1 Unweighted sample counts

Statistical testing

References

| | | | --- | --- | | | Regional & Community Outreach | | Issue Brief | 2025-1 | October 2025
Child-care usage and access challenges during COVID-19 and the economic recovery
Sarah Savage

| | | | | Issue Brief | 2025-1 | Child-care usage and access challenges during COVID-19 and the economic recovery Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 3 Key findings ........................................................................................................................ 4 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 4 Background ........................................................................................................................ 5 Access challenges and COVID-19 .................................................................................. 6 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 6 Sample characteristics .................................................................................................... 7 The survey....................................................................................................................... 7 Access measures ............................................................................................................ 8 Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 8 Care usage from recollections to expectations ............................................................... 8 Care usage by subgroup ............................................................................................... 11 Table 1 | Percentage of mothers foregoing needed care by reference period and subgroup........................................................................................................................... 12 Table 2 | Mothers who use care agreeing or strongly agreeing that "I use less care than I need due to..." by state of residence ................................................................................ 13 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 18 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 21 About the author ............................................................................................................... 22 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 22 Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 23 Definitions ...................................................................................................................... 23 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 24 Table A1 | Unweighted sample counts .............................................................................25 Statistical testing ........................................................................................................... 26 References ....................................................................................................................... 27 The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System. © 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. All rights reserved. Issue Brief | 2025-1 | Child-care usage and access challenges during COVID-19 and the economic reco

FAQs

What problem does the issue brief focus on?

It examines child-care usage and access challenges during COVID-19 and the economic recovery, including how difficult access affects families’ ability to meet care needs.

How does the brief study access challenges?

It analyzes child-care demand and access at different stages of the pandemic using survey data collected from nearly 2,100 New England mothers with at least one child under age 6.

Why is child-care access important for parents’ work?

Inaccessible child care can act as a barrier to work, affecting parents’ labor force participation and shaping families’ economic opportunities.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle