Child-care usage and access challenges during COVID-19 and the economic recovery 
Key Findings
- More mothers surveyed forewent needed care at the time of the survey than they reported doing in the months leading up to COVID-19 or expected to do in the subsequent three months.
- Forgoing needed care differed by demographics. For instance, lower-income mothers were 24.3 percentage points more likely to forego needed care at the time of the survey than higher-income mothers. Similarly, mothers who were unemployed or outside the labor force were 20.9 percentage points more likely to forgo needed care than employed mothers at the time of the survey.
- Affordability was a top reason for foregoing needed care, with more than 64 percent of mothers who forewent needed care citing costs in the months leading up to COVID and at the time of the survey; this was followed by availability (concerns over hours, days, location, and space).
- Among mothers who used care, while a higher percentage of lower-income mothers used less care than needed than higher-income mothers at the time of the survey, mothers with moderate incomes were the most likely to report using less care than needed.