Families of children with special needs have continued to experience more material hardship, hunger, and emotional distress compared to those who do not have children with special needs. In December 2020, we published a blog post that summarized the challenges that families of children with special needs have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This factsheet reveals the disparities and unique challenges since then.

The topics and trends that RAPID has followed for the past two years provide a living record of the pandemic. However, these issues didn’t begin in 2020 and the challenges will remain in the lives of our survey families well after the pandemic has faded into history.

Economic hardship within the early childhood workforce is compounded by low wages and significant debt, including student debt.

From July to December 2021, millions of American families received monthly payments through an expanded Child Tax Credit. We look back at these stories to explore families’ experiences.

In late 2021, we reported on the significant number of households with young children that were experiencing hunger. In this fact sheet we update those findings and add to them data about hunger among child care providers.

In this fact sheet, we explore what types of material hardship families with young children are reporting and how experiences differ by income level.

Since the start of the advance Child Tax Credit payments in July 2021, 76% of parents in our national survey report having received the payments. How are the payments affecting families’ financial situations and emotional well‐being?

In this fact sheet, we revisit the topic of food insecurity with updated information and look at whether and how families’ experiences with hunger have changed since December 2020.

In a previous fact sheet, we showed that the unpredictability in paying for basic needs during the pandemic had a negative impact on caregivers’ and children’s well-being. In Part 2, we focus on other ways that unpredictability in finances affects the lives of families with young children.

In a previous fact sheet, we described challenges that child care providers are facing during the pandemic. In Part 2, we delve further into how their lives are affected by food insecurity, economic hardship, and work schedule uncertainty.

We asked parents about their understanding of and ability to access CTC payments, whether they expected to receive the payments, and how they were planning to use this new source of income. Here is what they had to say.

1971 was the year I started my first job. It was the year that featured movies like Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was the year the first e-mail was sent, the year Elon Musk was born and the year President Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act, setting public financing of child care in the United States back for years to come.

When families' financial circumstances are unpredictable, it leads to more emotional distress for both parents and children.

American families rely heavily on child care providers, but providers have been struggling during the pandemic. This is taking a toll on their emotional well-being, which has the potential to adversely impact the care they provide.

Families have been struggling considerably with debt and bills since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The more debt, the greater the emotional distress reported.

This Sunday we all need to take a minute to acknowledge how hard mothers have been hit by the pandemic.Nearly four times more women than men have lost jobs since the beginning of pandemic and data suggest that it’s been worse still for working mothers.

In this fact sheet, we provide data on trends in rates of material hardship over the past year and explore the relationship between material hardship and the well-being of caregivers and children.

The pandemic has caused women to disproportionately leave the workforce, take over childcare roles, and deal with the heavy consequences of these changes. With Mother’s Day approaching, we take a closer look at what women with young children are saying about work.

What We’ve Learned Listening to Family Voices

American Families are struggling to afford food and being forced to decide which basic needs they can afford and which they will go without this holiday season.