Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building, NAFCC
After 43 days of a federal government shutdown, the country slowly reopened, yet the ripple effects of those weeks will not disappear overnight. The shutdown’s reach went far beyond politics and affected families, child care programs, and the community supports that make daily life possible.
When subsidy payments and food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were delayed, family child care educators stepped in once again. In homes across the country, they continued to care for children, support families, and keep communities steady, even as uncertainty mounted.
We’ve seen this before, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. When the world shut down in 2020, child care did not. Family child care and other early educators showed up day after day because care cannot pause. These small business owners and educators, overwhelmingly women and disproportionately women of color, held their communities together through crises that revealed just how essential child care is to every part of the economy.
According to PHI National, women and people of color make up the vast majority of the direct care workforce, yet face some of the lowest wages and least stable job conditions. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research has found that while women’s employment has rebounded since the pandemic, caregiving burdens persist, keeping inequities alive in the very system that sustains working families.
During the shutdown, family child care educators once again filled the gaps left by stalled programs and delayed benefits. Through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), they continued serving nutritious meals every day, ensuring children received consistent nourishment even as household benefits were delayed. For many families, these meals were a lifeline. In FY2023, CACFP reached over 4.4 million participants daily, serving billions of meals nationwide.
Family child care educators are upholding the stability of entire communities. Their work supports working parents, anchors local economies, and nurtures children during critical stages of development. These educators operate with consistency, care, and commitment in a system that too often undervalues their contribution.
This consistency matters. In moments when public assistance falters, family child care educators remain one of the last lines of stability for children, by providing both food and care in safe, nurturing home-like environments. Yet, while they shoulder these responsibilities, many still struggle with their own financial insecurities and low wages.
While some argue that child care should remain a private responsibility within the home, that notion overlooks the economic conditions created by public policy. In a system where wages stagnate, costs rise, and support is scarce, families are not opting out of caring for their own children by choice. They’re navigating a landscape shaped by political decisions that have made outside care a necessity for survival.
When household safety nets break, child care absorbs the shock. But it shouldn’t have to. We cannot continue to rely on an underpaid and overextended workforce to compensate for policy failures. The same educators who support our families deserve policies that sustain their funding for CACFP, fair reimbursement rates, timely payments, and wages that reflect their essential role.
Child care doesn’t stop for shutdowns, snow days, or political stalemates. It moves quietly and steadily, teaching, feeding, and nurturing while the rest of the world debates. Educators operate without pause because their work is tied to human need.
Now that the government has reopened, policymakers must match that same urgency. The path forward requires sustained federal investment, strengthening programs like SNAP, CACFP, and the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG), guaranteeing on-time payments even during future shutdowns, and funding grant programs that stabilize family child care businesses.
The call to action remains simple: treat child care as the foundation it is. Contact your representatives, share the stories of family child care educators in your community, and demand that budgets reflect the priorities of these educators. When child care is supported, families and the entire economy thrive.
Budgets may stall and debates may drag on, but the truth remains the same: the economy runs on child care. And although the nation continued to move forward for 43 days without a functioning government, it was not without serious consequences. Likewise, parents going even a portion of that time without child care would face immediate consequences and far-reaching impacts on their jobs, their stability, and their families.
Eboni Delaney is the Director of Policy and Movement Building at the National Association for Family Child Care, and a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project in Partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.
