SPOTLIGHT: When school is out for the summer, what's a working parent to do? (June 2025)

SPOTLIGHT: When school is out for the summer, what's a working parent to do?

June 2025

June 2025Contents

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When school is out for the summer, what's a working parent to do?While some families have the option of one stay-at-home parent, or a relative who can care for children during school breaks, many do not. For many, if not most, working parents, summer childcare options are both limited and expensive. Remember when kids used to go to school year-round? No? Neither do I. But they did!

Once upon a time, schools in urban areas were "typically open year round." Schools in Boston and Philadelphia held classes "240-250 days" per year "even as late as 1841." In rural areas, schools "typically had two terms, one in the winter and another in the summer."

School was a year-round event in colonial times.”

CBS News

Nowadays, the U.S. school year is "relatively consistent across states." It's also shorter, at just 180 school days:

According to Pew Research Center, "most K-12 public schools now are in session for only 180 days a year," and the "average U.S. school-aged child" has at least 10 to 12 weeks vacation during the summer months.

There are exceptions. "Twenty-five states allow year-round schooling," and some districts embraced the option as a way to "address students who fell behind because of virtual learning during the pandemic." According to a 2023 report, the "number of schools opting for year-round calendars grew from 2.5% in 2018 to 4% in 2020, impacting over 3 million students."

Summer camp costs are high -- and rising:

According to the American Camp Association, the average daily per-camper fee for day camp was $87.23 in 2022, bringing the average weekly cost to over $430. In 2021, day camp costs surged to a whopping $178.49 (per day!!) , due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic. (While some discounted camp programs exist, they tend to fill up quickly and many offer only limited hours.)

According to a recent survey by the Center for American Progress, 73% of families reported "at least some difficulty" with finding summer child care. More than 50% said "cost was a challenge."

The Center for American Progress estimated in 2018 that “a typical family of four could expect to pay more than $3,000 for summer programs—20 percent of its take-home pay for the entire summer.”

Beyond the high cost of summer child care, there are other challenges:

Summer childcare programs are "often not available during the hours for which parents need care, and they are rarely available throughout the entire summer."

32% of parents surveyed by the Center for American Progress began their search for summer child care as early as March, 25% of respondents to the same survey "reported not having care arrangements that fully met their family’s needs for the summer" by May.

The survey found that "kids typically receive summer programming that covers just half of the 10- to 12-week break."

Challenges around summer child care are impacting the labor market:

Working parents are making "job-related changes" as a result of the lack of summer child care.

57% of families surveyed by the Center for American Progress found that "at least one parent" planned on "making a change to their job that is likely to result in a smaller paycheck" as a result of summer child care challenges and "in nearly one-third of families," both parents planned to do so.

Expensive child care is not just a summertime problem:

A lack of affordable child care is impacting how workers make career decisions: 63% of parents "say they made career changes to afford child care," according to a 2024 report published by Boston Consulting Group and Moms First.

More than half (51%) of moms in the "sandwich generation" say they "have left a job due to caregiving responsibilities." (Members of the "sandwich generation" are "simultaneously supporting both children and adult dependents.")

A 2022 report indicates that "each year, labor force exits due to child care needs are estimated to cost parents and caregivers $30-35 billion in lost income."

Workers believe employers aren't doing enough when it comes to addressing caregiving responsibilities:

68% of mothers in the so-called "sandwich generation" say the "benefits offered by their employers aren't enough to meet the needs" of their childcare responsibilities, according to a 2025 survey published by the University of Phoenix Career Institute and Motherly.

Are childcare benefits they key to talent retention?

88% of employers say childcare benefits boost productivity and 90% say childcare benefits "boost talent recruitment and retention as much as paid time off and health insurance," according to a 2024 report published by Boston Consulting Group and Moms First.

"About 20%" of workers told Care.com they "left a job before because their employer didn’t provide family care benefits," according to a 2024 Care.com survey of U.S. workers and HR leaders. The same survey found that 29% of workers said a "lack of caregiving benefits was the top reason" they sought another job.

On-site child care is still a rare benefit:

While on-site child care -- and employer-sponsored summer child care -- remain a rare benefit, experts say that they expect demand for the benefit to grow. Care.com's 2024 survey found that "over half of employers" were committed to "prioritizing childcare benefits in 2024," including "cash subsidies for care, new parent support and on-site childcare."

I certainly believe this will be an increasing trend, child care as an office amenity."

Priya Krishnan, Chief Digital and Transformation Officer, Bright Horizons, via Worklife.news

EXAMPLES, BY EMPLOYER:

After hearing "concerns from employees," AT&T is "piloting a summer camp program" this summer as part of an effort to "gauge whether on or near-site daycare would be a valuable investment for its employees." The AT&T summer camp will last 10 weeks and registration is open to "employees with kids aged 4–12."

According to Worklife.news, Bright Horizons holds its own summer camp at the company's headquarters in July and August. The camp serves children of employees who can "attend during the regular workday hours."

The Great Pacific Child Development Center at Patagonia's Ventura headquarters offers "a climbing wall (a nod to the company’s founding as the go-to gear shop for alpinists), garden, playground, mud kitchen, and space for 100 children, from newborns to 9 year olds." At Patagonia's distribution warehouse, the company operates a second childcare center.

Tyson invested "nearly $5 million" to open an on-site childcare facility back in 2023. The facility "opens at 4:30 in the morning, right before the day shift starts at the plant."

UPS provides emergency childcare benefits for workers. UPS piloted the program beginning in August 2022 and announced its expansion in the fall of 2023. The program was launched with the "goals of reducing work absences because of childcare challenges and increasing retention," according to UPS.

Financial services firm State Street offers "on-site camps during February and April break to cover parents during the week off school."