That probably means that a parent — probably the mother — has dropped out of the labor force.
Staffing shortages and high turnover have dogged the early education and child care field for years. The pandemic has made them acute issues.
Low pay is still an obstacle to bringing people into the field, where employment is 10% lower than before the pandemic.
If the early childhood education system is a food chain, district-run preschool programs in California are the new big fish, gobbling up a lot of the resources – including qualified teachers.
