Nani Oesterle
Program Officer, Early Childhood Development, US
Research shows that stable, responsive, nurturing care in the early years is critical to enable young children to reach their full potential. Our partners at the RAPID Survey Project, based in the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, seek to understand the experiences and challenges facing families with young children and to provide timely, actionable insights that inform policies and programs that help children thrive.
RAPID researchers have heard from more than 23,000 parents of young children and 15,000 child care providers in all 50 states since the project’s launch in April 2020. In two recent reports published in June and August of 2025, RAPID shared the results of years of surveys of parents and other childcare providers about their economic and emotional well-being.
Note: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation provides support for the parent survey.
Parent Survey:
RAPID asks parents of young children questions designed to better understand the contexts in which young children are developing. The survey aims to understand families’ overall well-being and economic situations, including their experiences of “material hardship,” which is defined as difficulty within the past month meeting basic needs like food, housing, utilities, child care, and healthcare.
Researchers found the economic well-being of the family and emotional well-being of the parent and the child are deeply connected. Consistent access to basic needs is key to a stable home environment, and the stability created by economic well-being supports the healthy development of young children and their families.
Data collected between April 2020 and April 2025 from parents with children under age 6 revealed that economic hardship in families is prevalent, with the responses in April 2025 showing it is at its highest levels since the RAPID surveys were launched. According to the authors, the survey data has consistently revealed evidence of a chain reaction of hardship, in which material hardship is directly associated with an increase in parents’ emotional distress which is, in turn, associated with an increase in child emotional distress.
RAPID surveys show that policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic – including expanded and refundable Child Tax Credit, increased food assistance, and child care stabilization funds – led to improved family well-being and child development. Report authors conclude that reinstating these policies would help improve economic circumstances in support of healthier, thriving families and communities.
Learn more about results of the parent survey here.
Caregiver Survey:
Child care providers who educate young children in homes and centers provide critical support for families and for overall child development. Research shows they also face serious challenges, including chronically low wages, high stress and limited professional support.
Child care providers surveyed by RAPID between March 2021 and March 2025 included center-based teachers and directors, home-based providers, family, friend, and neighbor providers, and babysitters/nannies. Over the past four years, providers of care for children under age 6 have consistently reported serious challenges in meeting their basic needs.
For example, more than half (54%) of providers, on average, experienced material hardship in one or more basic needs. On average over the past four years, utilities (62%), healthcare (54%), food (47%), housing (42%), and child care (20%) were the most common material needs that providers reported difficulty affording.
Similar to the parent survey results, RAPID data show these trends worsening over time. Economic pressures, including low wages and rising costs of basic needs contribute to significant financial strain. These difficulties are linked to high levels of emotional distress across the workforce, with particularly elevated distress reported by providers working in programs undergoing staffing changes.
RAPID highlighted the need for policymakers’ ongoing attention and action to support these caregivers, saying: “[C]hild care providers are vital to families and communities, and are a key part of the foundation of early learning. Addressing these challenges requires sustained policies and programs that focus on both the economic and emotional well-being of child care providers. Improving compensation, reducing debt burdens, and stabilizing staffing conditions would help support this essential workforce.”
See more of the caregiver survey results and RAPID’s conclusions here.
