The Child Care Gap That Affordability Alone Cannot Close

Child care costs are a mounting burden for working families. More than half of families who need child care are paying more than they were a year ago, and middle-income families are caught between benefit cliffs and budgets that leave little room to absorb rising costs. New polling conducted by the Bipartisan Policy Center in partnership with Global Strategy Group and North Star Opinion Research suggests cost is not the only barrier standing between families and stable child care access. Across the country, families are piecing together arrangements, often by leaning on the trusted people in their lives for informal care. Yet 60% of caregivers who need child care, and 64% of middle-income caregivers (those making between $50K-$100K annually) specifically, report that access difficulties caused someone in their household to miss work, reduce hours, or change jobs in the past year. Affordability and access are different problems, and closing the child care gap requires addressing both.

Affordable Child Care Often Means Informal Care

Most families who need child care have found ways to manage costs, though fewer than a third (31%) describe their current arrangement as outright affordable, and middle-income families feel the squeeze most.

Families using relative care (a grandparent, aunt, or other family member) are the most likely of any group to describe their care as outright affordable (38%), followed closely by families where a parent or partner provides care while not working (35%). By contrast, families using formal child care centers (28%) and before- and after-school care (25%) are the least likely to call their arrangements affordable.

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This is not surprising: More than half of all families who need child care (53%) report paying more than they were a year ago, making the search for affordable arrangements more urgent. Informal care provided by relatives, friends, and neighbors often operates outside the licensed and regulated market, and costs less because those providers are not operating as licensed businesses. That cost difference can be meaningful for family budgets and reflects how families make decisions.

It also demonstrates what families say they need. When asked what they look for in quality child care, families consistently prioritize safety, trust, and reliability above all else. For many families, choosing a grandparent or a trusted neighbor is not a fallback; it is the deliberate choice of someone whose care they trust.

Informal Care Fills a Gap the Formal System Created

While choice of informal care makes sense for some families, the data shows it is not purely a matter of preference. Families using informal arrangements report barriers to formal care at higher-than-average rates. Among those relying on relative care, 45% say limited availability of trusted providers has made it difficult to find child care that meets their needs (vs. 34% overall), and 42% cite limited availability of quality providers (vs. 36% overall). Families using friend and neighbor care report similar patterns.

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These numbers suggest that informal care is not only what families may want, but what they can find. The formal child care market has not produced enough providers that caregivers trust, at prices they can afford, in locations accessible to them, and during the hours they need. Families are often not choosing between a formal system that works and an informal one they prefer, but between a formal system that is unavailable, unaffordable, or both, and an informal arrangement that they can make work.

On average, caregivers polled report using 2.1 different types of child care simultaneously. That figure demonstrates families are finding solutions, but that no single arrangement meets their full need. When families layer arrangements, the gaps between them are where things break down.

Affordable Care Isn’t Always Reliable Care

For 4 in 10 caregivers, finding child care that meets their needs is difficult, and 29% say it has become more difficult in the past year alone. Even among those who have found affordable, trusted care, inconsistent access is driving workforce disruptions: 60% of caregivers needing child care report that someone in their household missed work, reduced hours, or changed jobs in the past year as a result. The disruption cuts across care types and is not concentrated among families in the most expensive formal arrangements. Among caregivers using relative care, the group most likely to call their care affordable, 62% report missing work due to access difficulties and 63% report changing their work schedule to cover care. Among those using friend or neighbor care, 70% say they have missed work and 69% report needing to make schedule changes. While these caregivers may appear to have largely solved the cost problem, access remains a challenge.

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Access to care during nontraditional hours further illustrates the gap. Caregivers need child care well beyond standard weekday work hours: 41% need early morning care, 35% need evening care, and significant shares need weekend, summer, and shift coverage. Informal arrangements, however trusted, may not be able to cover these hours reliably. A grandparent who watches the kids on weekday afternoons may fall ill, not be available for a 6 a.m. shift, or be busy during Saturday training. When that coverage falls through, someone misses work.

The downstream consequences are significant: 43% of caregivers have declined more hours or a promotion because of child care access difficulties, and caregivers relying on relative care (52%) and friend or neighbor care (56%) report rates above the overall average. Another 36% have delayed school or job training. These are compounding constraints that shape which caregivers can advance, and which cannot.

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What This Means for Policy

The caregivers polled are finding solutions despite a system that falls short. They are piecing together care, managing costs through informal arrangements, and absorbing disruptions, sometimes at significant professional cost. The result is a child care landscape that looks more functional than it is and where affordability numbers appear manageable, but workforce disruption numbers are high, and the gap between the two is falling on families to close.

Subsidies and tax credits matter and making formal care more affordable is critical, but existing assistance is reaching only a fraction of families who need it. Among benefit recipients, child care ranks among the most difficult government benefits to navigate with 42% citing complicated rules and paperwork. Survey data points to a second, distinct problem: There are not enough trusted, quality providers available at the hours families need them. The access problem is sharpest in rural communities, where more than half of caregivers report difficulty finding care and reliance on informal arrangements is highest. Whatever the motivation for using these arrangements, the outcomes are consistent: financial stability is affected, work schedules are disrupted, and career growth is constrained.

Informal care is not the problem, and for many families, it is part of the solution. The question is whether it is being asked to do more than it can reliably sustain. When 60% of families report workforce disruptions despite having found care they consider affordable and trustworthy, the answer is clear: access is the gap that affordability cannot close, and it is a gap in need of policy attention.

Methodology: Data cited in this article draws from the Bipartisan Policy Center National Caregivers Survey, conducted by Global Strategy Group and North Star Opinion Research, April 6, 13, 2026. The survey polled 1,039 caregivers nationwide, defined as individuals responsible for caring for a child under 18, an older family member, or a family member with a disability or chronic health condition. The margin of error at the 95% confidence level is ±3.0%. Responses were weighted by age, gender, race, education, and geography to ensure a representative sample of caregivers.

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