Last month, Voices for Human Needs detailed The Child Care Cliff, a new report released by The Century Foundation. The report warned that as many as 3.2 million kids could lose access to child care beginning this fall and 70,000 child care centers across the U.S. could close. 

The closures could come because states are losing access to billions of dollars authorized by Congress as part of pandemic relief. The extra aid expires on September 30 in most states, and the report warns that these disastrous child care losses will have “ripple effects” that go far beyond the child care industry, which already was in dire straits before the pandemic hit. 

As part of the report, The Century Foundation released fact sheets for all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. You can download them here. Each state fact sheet documents how many kids are expected to lose child care; the number of child care programs expected to close; the loss of earnings families will experience as a result of having to cut their hours or leave the workforce entirely; the loss of employer productivity; and the loss of child care jobs. In some cases, the loss of tax revenue to the state is also included. 

For example, in Texas, 305,976 kids are expected to lose child care and 3,949 child care programs could close. Texas parents could lose $774.9 million in earnings due to having to cut back hours or leave their jobs, and $961 million in employer productivity would be lost. And the child care industry – not yet recovered from the pandemic – could shed an additional 17,704 jobs. Remember – that’s just in Texas. 

The state fact sheets provided by The Century Foundation are a terrific resource for activists, front-line service providers or others who want to use the upcoming August congressional recess to convey to their elected representatives just what is at stake if these massive cuts in child care funding take place. 

We’ve just learned that the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds child care will release its funding bill on Friday, July 14; the Senate committee is not likely to put out its bill until the end of July.  We’ll keep you posted. The Child Care Cliff shows the urgency of pressing Congress to prevent these drastic losses. 

If you do engage in outreach, be sure and check out this handy social media toolkit The Century Foundation has produced.