Sep 17, 2017

Shift workers struggle to find child care options

At a 24-hour daycare in Vegas, Hortencia Hansen helps a child go to sleep during bedtime at the McCarran International Child Development Center. Photo: John Locher / AP

"Parents ... who work outside traditional business hours often are lost in the national conversation about access to child care and early education," AP's Sally Ho writes from Vegas:

"In many cases, the children of shift workers are cared for by relatives or friends in unofficial capacities. Those without such a support network have few, if any, options."
"The National Survey of Early Care and Education said in a 2015 report that just 2 percent of the child care centers it surveyed offer child care in the evening. ... 3 percent have weekend hours.
Why it matters: "We have an increasingly service-based economy with non-standard hours, that's more heavily concentrated in lower income groups ... The systems that we have — day care, Head Start, Pre-K — ... began years and years ago."
The conversation: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) proposed legislation Thursday designed to increase access to affordable child care, including for families that work non-traditional hours.

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