This year will mark the 5th annual National Day Without Child Care hosted by Community Change Action. In its first year, hundreds of childcare providers from around the country closed their doors to demand public investments in a better childcare system. Since then, they’ve won transformative policy change in cities and states, and have grown their movement. 

As the Trump administration launches racist attacks on child care, threatens child care funding in favor of violence and warmongering at home and abroad, and cuts healthcare and food programs that providers and families lean on — the child care movement is more motivated than ever before.

On May 11, 2026, thousands of childcare providers and parents plan to strike together to demand a national universal child care system that includes care for every child and family, thriving wages for providers, and is built on racial and gender justice. From Washington to Alabama, these are the stories of some of the providers and parents leading the charge.

Kayanna Jackson, Burlington, NJ

Kayanna Jackson lives in a rural part of New Jersey, where it’s hard for parents to find care. She used to be a caregiver at a nursing home, but when she had her own kids, she couldn’t find quality care. So she opened her own child care business.

But now, she’s contemplating going back into the medical field because she’s struggling to keep her doors open as more parents can’t afford child care. And Kayanna is making plenty of sacrifices herself: She’s giving free care to community members she knows need it, she’s taking care of sick babies whose parents have no sick leave, and she has no leave herself — returning to work just two days after having her baby boy.

This system is unsustainable, so for Day Without Child Crae, she’s organizing a march to the Capitol to tell her state representatives about this crisis. She wants to make sure early childhood educators — especially home-based providers — don’t get left out of universal child care policy. 

“We want it to be a system where everyone who loves children can be involved, can be compensated the way they deserve, and parents and kids can access a safe and quality place where the kids get the education they truly deserve,” she said. “The money should follow the kids, they should get a fair chance no matter who they are, what they look like — they are the future.”

And for herself — sick days, a retirement plan, a vacation with her family — would all be in the cards.

Julie Montgomery, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

Julie Montgomery is a retired childcare provider of over 30 years — she’s done every position from cook, to teacher, to director. And she wants to make some changes.

“First and foremost, wages are absolutely too low. Benefits as well,” she said. She struggled with affording health care, even as a director, and was forced to go without it for most of her time as a provider. “So many people leave because they need benefits,” she said, “We lose so much talent in the field.”

Julie is organizing a Day Without Child Care action with two other leaders at a public park in Arlington, with activities for children to join. 

Universal child care will help grow women in the workforce, ensure all children get educated, and bring stable income for providers, she said. She hopes for better training, better facilities, better ratios, and workforce investment — explaining that the expectations are so high for providers, but there is no support.

 “Child care is different in every state across the nation, and that shouldn’t be. All children deserve the best care,” Julie said. “Investment is the only way.”

Lisa Gross and Martha Rae, Indiana

A recent 15-month child care voucher freeze wreaked havoc on Indiana’s childcare system, with many providers forced to close their doors. Lisa Gross is one of them. 

Before the voucher cuts, she said business was great — they were 98 percent full. But then reimbursement rates were cut and families were put on never-ending waitlists. 

“The rent didn’t go down, the food costs were going up. We realized the math was not going to work,” Lisa said. By December, they were losing more than $10,000 a week and it became clear they would have to close their center that served hundreds of children. The closure left her and her husband unemployed and forced to file for bankruptcy.

Lisa said child care is the bottom line of the state’s infrastructure, but policymakers are instead focused on bringing in data centers. 

“Where do the employees of these new data centers go for child care? You can’t build up one side by tearing down the other,” she said. “Many of our legislators have no idea that they’ve been propped up by women’s labor.”

Lisa says that universal child care would mean parents don’t have to make hard choices, and providers would get living wages and benefits. She had 47 employees at her center, but wasn’t able to offer them insurance or retirement benefits.  They were all impacted by her forced closure,

With universal child care, Lisa said, “Kids are happy because they have stability, teachers can stay, everyone gets lifted up.”

Martha is another former provider in Indiana. She was a high-income earner when she became a mother, but she still struggled to find care for her child, so she started her own small Montessori program. She said in the 30 years since she had to leave the workforce to care for her child, nothing has improved.

Now, Martha is a child care advocate and she is organizing actions for Day Without Child Care throughout the state — looking to have events in all four corners and the middle of the state. 

To her, universal child care means opportunities for children. “People have a scarcity mindset, they need to see the link between something that doesn’t directly impact them and how it makes their communities better,” Martha said. “Universal just makes sense. It’s simple.”

Sandra Sanchez and Shelby Silva-Martinez, Washington State

Sandra Sanchez is the executive director of Proveedoras Unidas de Eastern Washington and has 25 years of experience in licensed child care. She’s organizing to bring hundreds of providers to Olympia on Day Without Child Care to advocate in front of state representatives.

Years ago, Sandra’s mom helped her set up her business. She discovered a genuine passion for early learning and began building her professional foundation despite the challenges of navigating contracts, policies, and rates with little guidance. She committed to serving her community, particularly Latino families.

“What began as filling a childcare need evolved into a mission centered on both serving parents and connecting with my community through culturally responsive early learning,” Sandra said.

Over the past year, she’s already lost about $20,000 in revenue and fears having to let go of her assistant because families are unable to afford to enroll their children.

Shelby Silva-Martinez is one of the hundreds of providers who are participating in Sandra’s action in Olympia.

Shelby was pregnant at home during COVID when her sister asked her to help care for her nephews. Later, Shelby’s husband encouraged her to open a child care business. Now she’s an in-home provider where she cares for nine children and has a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education.

Many families she cares for have trouble getting qualified for the assistance they need to pay for care, and those challenges for the families trickle down to the providers, she explained. 

“Child care impacts everyone,” Shelby said. “I have six families reliant on my services. If they don’t have anyone to care for their kids, parents — typically the mother — might have to stay home. Her employer loses an employee and has to spend time finding a replacement. We all need to work together and recognize the importance of child care to our community”

Sharon Jackson, Millbrook, Alabama

Sharon Jackson has been an in-home Head Start provider for many years, and before that was a center director. But earlier this year, she started also providing child care during nontraditional hours. In the evenings she offers breaks to parents of autistic and neurodivergent children to go out and grocery shop, take a bath, whatever they need. And on two weekends a month, she cares for children of military families that need to attend drills.

Ms. Sharon is a true community leader — planting gardens, helping other providers in the area with licensing and accreditation, supporting parents as they apply for benefits, doing ministry in a women’s prison.

“This is what keeps people working, communities thriving. If you don’t have any support, who can you rely on if not a child care provider?” she said. “I want legislators to come hang out with us for a day, even an hour, just to see the moving parts.”

To her, universal child care means all children get treated with the same access to equal programs that make everyone’s lives better. A system where staff is paid well and is equipped to care for kids with all different abilities. Where providers have medical and dental care alongside a livable wage.

“They give us what they think we’re worth,” Sharon said, “but we’re worth so much more than that.”

Heather Murphy, Baltimore, Maryland

Heather Murphy is a mother of eight who sees the struggles of the childcare providers in her life. 

“We’re asking impossible things of care providers and we set them up to lose,” she said. 

For Day Without Child Care, she’s keeping her kids home and organizing an event to bring parents and children together to speak on the issues with our childcare system and lift up the informal care village she’s a part of. To her, child care means so many things: early literacy, violence prevention, developing and preparing our kids for adulthood.

She said she believes our country should be a place where every child has the right to a great start in life through universal child care. Heather emphasizes that people have a lot of negative things to say about childcare providers and parents, especially Black women, but at the end of the day, we are all working class people who should take care of each other.

“We need each other and that’s the priority — that’s the only way we win,” she said.

Tiffie Jackson, St. Louis, Missouri

Tiffie Jackson is worried what would happen if she had to close her business for good — “People are dependent on me – staff, kids, families. If I close, there might not be another place for them,” she said.

Tiffie has a small childcare business in St. Louis Missouri where she has 17 kids enrolled, most of them through child care subsidies. Some of the kids have special needs and she says it’s hard to keep staff for such hard work, with such little pay. She pays her staff $14 an hour, while she pays herself just $12 an hour — no one making enough to live comfortably.

Tiffie ran through her savings during the child care funding cliff in 2024 and has since had to live off credit cards just to pay the bills at home. She has no vacation time, no retirement.

“You have to take pride in what you do, you have to stand up,” she said about why she’s taking action. “I was a parent who didn’t qualify for child care at one point, so I’m trying to shake things up as someone who’s been on both sides.”