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day.128 Although daycare centers and schools have since reopened in many communities, there <br />remains a persistent childcare shortage as childcare employment levels have not fully rebounded <br />since the sharp decline in childcare employment at the beginning of the pandemic.129 As a result, <br />working parents in communities across the country, and more specifically women, may face <br />challenges entering or reentering the labor force.13° <br />Low-income households are also more likely to lose access to quality childcare.131 The <br />widespread closure of childcare centers combined with a lack of access to paid family leave <br />means parents in low-income households are more likely to experience a reduction of income or <br />leave their jobs due to a lack of childcare options.132 <br />Additionally, childcare providers serving primarily low-income families were less likely <br />to remain open during the pandemic because of tighter profit margins and general community <br />financial insecurity, compared to childcare providers serving primarily high -income <br />families.133'134 <br />128 Women have carried a larger share of childcare responsibilities than men during the COVID-19 crisis. See, e.g., <br />Gema Zamarro & Marfa J. Prados, Gender differences in couples' division of childcare, work and mental health <br />during COVID— 19, Rev. Econ. Household 19:11-40 (2021), available at https://link.springer.com/article/ <br />10.1007/s11150-020-09534-7; Titan Alon et al., The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality, National Bureau of <br />Economic Research Working Paper 26947 (April 2020), available at https://www.nber.org/ papers/w26947. <br />129 See, e.g., Center For The Study Of Child Care Employment (CSCCE), Child Care Sector Jobs: BLS Analysis <br />(November 8, 2021), https://cscce.berkeley.edu/child-care-sector jobs-bls-analysis/; Emma K. Lee, and Zachary <br />Parolin. The Care Burden during COVID-19: A National Database of Child Care Closures in the United States, <br />Socius (January 2021), doi:10.1177/23780231211032028. <br />13° Jason Furman, Melissa Schettini Kearney, and Wilson Powell, The Role of Childcare Challenges in the US Jobs <br />Market Recovery During the COVID-19 Pandemic, NBER Working Paper No. 28934 (June 2021), <br />https://www.nber.org/papers/w28934. <br />131 U.S. Census Bureau, Phase 3.2 Household Pulse Survey: Table 2. Childcare Arrangements in the Last 4 Weeks <br />for Children Under 5 Years Old, by Selected Characteristics, (Washington: 2021), available at <br />https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/household-pulse-survey/data.html. <br />132Id. <br />133 N. Kalluri, C. Kelly, & A. Garg, Child Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Bad Situation Made Worse. <br />Pediatrics (2021), https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-041525. <br />134 National Association for the Education of Young Children, Am I Next? Sacrificing to Stay Open, Child Care <br />Providers Face a Bleak Future Without Relief (December 2020), https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally- <br />shared/downloads/PDF. <br />95 <br />