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It鈥檚 hard enough to find child care in this country that is dependable and affordable when working a regular 9 to 5 job. of American counties are child care deserts where it鈥檚 nearly impossible to find a slot, while prices are across most of the country.

But what about parents who work shifts outside of daytime hours or on the weekends? There are barely any feasible options for them, and the lack of accessible care often pushes them to cut back at work or give up on better paying jobs.

Ashley (whose name was changed to protect her identity) lives with her three children in Austin, Texas and works at a factory that makes car parts. Her job requires her to start early in the morning and sometimes on the weekends. When she works weekends, she has to ask family members to let her children stay with them, but she can鈥檛 set up a reliable arrangement because her hours continually change, so she often has to ask several people before she can find someone who can do it. She drives as much as 40 minutes one way to get her children to a trustworthy family member who鈥檚 available, and if they鈥檙e late she gets docked attendance points 鈥� if she gets too many points she could be disciplined or even fired.

She鈥檚 been able to get early morning care on weekdays at the child care center she trusts. But she would love to get promoted to a supervisor position at work, which would mean getting to work even earlier in the morning, earlier than her center opens. The inability to find reliable, trustworthy care outside of traditional working hours has kept her from advancing her career and making more money for her family.

鈥淚 wish there were day cares that opened earlier, because I can鈥檛 move up in the company, like become a lead or a supervisor or anything,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 would have to be at work at 6:00 [a.m.]. The earliest the day care opens is 6:00 a.m.鈥�

Ashley鈥檚 story is included in looking at families鈥� need for child care during nontraditional hours in Travis County, where Austin is located. The researchers found that in Austin about a third of children under the age of six live in a household where all the parents work nontraditional hours 鈥� between 6pm and 7am on weekdays or anytime on the weekends 鈥� which comes to 18,000 children. It affects vulnerable groups the most. of Black children and 42 percent of Hispanic children live in such families. About two-thirds of these families live below the federal poverty line, and nearly three-quarters of parents working these jobs are immigrants.

Despite the high need for care during nontraditional hours, only 62 child care providers in Austin, or of the total, including both centers and in-home providers, have a license to operate outside of normal hours. That means there are a mere 2,000 spots at these times, far less than the number of children whose parents need this care. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a substantial gap between this need and regulated supply,鈥� said Diane Schilder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who co-wrote the research.

The researchers found that in Austin about a third of children under the age of six live in a household where all the parents work nontraditional hours 鈥攂etween 6pm and 7am on weekdays or anytime on the weekends 鈥� which comes to 18,000 children.

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And just because a provider has a license to operate outside of traditional hours, that doesn鈥檛 mean they offer the care that these families need. Only two providers in the county provide overnight care, and just 15 offer it on weekends. Even those who have extended hours during the week don鈥檛 typically do it for long: most offer just an extra hour in the morning, and only a few offer an extra hour in the evening. 鈥淛ust because they鈥檙e licensed to operate during that time doesn鈥檛 mean that they do,鈥� Schilder said.

The findings in Austin are for one city, but Urban Institute researchers have looked at other places across the country and came up with similar findings. 鈥淥verall the patterns are very similar,鈥� Schilder said. When Urban Institute researchers focused on Connecticut, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., they found that of children under the age of six lived in a family where all adults were working outside of traditional work hours. Parents in these places on family and friends to watch their children during early or late hours or on weekends despite often using a more formal setting during weekdays.

Nationally, Urban Institute researchers that 40 percent of children under the age of 6 were in some kind of nonparental care during nontraditional hours, including nearly half of Black children and about half of those living in families with income below the poverty level. These kids were to be cared for by family or friends and less likely to be in a center. Only of in-home child care providers and a mere 8 percent of child care centers across the country are open during these outside hours.

When parents can鈥檛 get licensed care when they work afterhours or on weekends, 鈥渙ften they are making informal arrangements with family members and friends,鈥� Schilder said. Many 鈥渄evelop a patchwork of care,鈥� noted Dawn Dow, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute and co-author of the Austin research. That may work out for some, but asking family to care for a child can place a burden on them, making it harder for those relatives to pursue their own economic opportunities.

Some parents simply can鈥檛 swing it and have to give up on work that they need. The researchers 鈥渟poke with a number of parents who described changing their work hours and constraining their economic opportunities because of a lack of care,鈥� Schilder said.

鈥淭here are parents who are foregoing opportunities for more lucrative jobs,鈥� Dow said. A parent might be interested in becoming an emergency room nurse, for example, which would pay better than, say, a retail job. But the hours are unpredictable and often don鈥檛 line up with typical child care hours, so she may decide against the switch.

鈥淪ometimes it feels like I鈥檓 choosing between my kid and my career,鈥� one parent told them. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 really want to work as a school nurse, but it鈥檚 one of the only things that works with my daughter鈥檚 schedule.鈥�

It’s certainly not easy to offer this kind of care. Child care providers are currently experiencing an acute staffing shortage, and it鈥檚 an even harder sell to get people to work early, late or on weekends. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very physical job picking up young children and caring for all of their needs,鈥� Schilder said. Doing it for even longer hours, especially if a provider is all alone, can feel impossible.

If a provider is caring for children who receive subsidies during nontraditional hours, those subsidies are so low that the provider might only get a couple of extra dollars for being open early or late, which 鈥渃an be prohibitive,鈥� Schilder said, especially if there are only one or two children but a provider still has to pay a full-time employee to watch them.

Meanwhile, many parents who work these odd hours also don鈥檛 tend to have consistent schedules and therefore a consistent need for this kind of care. They may not even get their schedules until a few weeks or even days in advance. of hourly service sector workers have variable work schedules, and 60 percent receive their schedules with less than two weeks鈥� notice. 鈥淭heir need is intermittent,鈥� Dow said. They may just need help covering a night or weekend shift once every few weeks. 鈥淲hich means the provider doesn鈥檛 always consistently have the same number of children,鈥� she said, 鈥渨hich makes it financially not feasible for them.鈥�

There are regulatory challenges, too. Some providers told Schilder and Dow that if a licensing inspector came at a nontraditional hour but there were no children needing that care that day, the provider was told to cut back on those hours. 鈥淚t became a negative cycle,鈥� Schilder said.

There are some potential solutions. States and the federal government could provide higher subsidy reimbursement rates for nontraditional hours so that they actually cover the cost of providing this care. Austin is piloting a shared services alliance, which allows in-home child care providers to share information and resources, and it could include information on who can offer afterhours care so that parents have more of a network to fall back on. Fair scheduling mandates, meanwhile, such as in Oregon state as well as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and other cities, would ensure that parents have enough of a heads up that they鈥檙e able to secure care for any morning, night, or weekend shifts.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.