Child Care and Health in America: Today's Challenges for Tomorrow's Children

Quality child care can help children develop lasting social, emotional, and learning skills and can promote healthy eating and play. But high-quality care, whether it comes from a nanny, a sitter, a daycare, or a preschool, can be difficult to find—and to afford. Drawing on the findings of a newly released poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, this Forum event brought together a panel of experts to discuss parents’ priorities and perceptions about their children’s care and how they square up against expert assessments of child care quality. How do parents find and select child care, and how does that care impact the health and well-being of children and families? How can child care be made accessible, high-quality and affordable? How do we even measure quality in a meaningful and accountable way? Forum panelists discussed ways to equip parents with better information about child care, and policy changes that can help children thrive.

This event was presented October 18, 2016 in Collaboration with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and NPR.

Watch the entire series from The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at www.ForumHSPH.org.