Last week on The 9:30 Call, Anne Hedgepeth, senior vice president of Policy & Research, at Child Care Aware of America, shared the results of the organization’s spring 2025, national survey of parents and their thoughts on child care. 

“We started by asking in the survey some key questions around parents’ child care arrangements: what they were looking for, and how hard it was to find child care,” Hedgepeth said on the call. 

The goal was to avoid assumptions and understand parents’ actual problems. 

“I think a big takeaway—that is much more about underscoring a truth that we all know about our child care system—is that parents are piecing together child care arrangements.”

Two of the key features that parents look for in child care settings are safety and cleanliness. 

 “But I did want to acknowledge,” Hedgepeth added, “that when it comes to what was extremely important or very important, parents and families are looking for the way in 

which their children are being supported in their brain development, in their learning, in their education—not just at being safely minded during the day.”

The survey also points out what most parents already know: finding child care can be very difficult. 

“Two-thirds of our families are struggling to find child care that meets their expectations around quality and affordability.”

To learn more, check out the video and the slides, and share them with your networks.