Promoting Sustainability of Child Care Programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a financial crisis for child care and early education providers beyond the narrow margins these providers previously faced. New challenges for providers include mandated closures, unstable enrollments and demands for child care, increased needs to implement health and safety procedures, and shifts between virtual, hybrid, or in-person learning for K-12 education. This research-to-practice brief illustrates the basics about child care costs and the revenue structure of child care facilities and identifies how changes in regulations and enrollment patterns have affected this structure. The brief also presents a description of what factors should be considered (for example, program eligibility for financial grants, selection criteria for grants, and the calculation of these grants) in allocating financial resources to child care providers when implementing sustainable child care programs.