U.S. Childcare Providers Still Await Bailout Funds a Year Later

The U.S. childcare industry has been crushed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the virus arrived in earnest in early 2020, about one-third of centers have closed and some 111,000 workers have departed the sector. To stem the bleeding, Congress allocated tens of billions of dollars, including $39 billion last March under the auspices of the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law by President Joe Biden. That package included $24 billion in grants to states meant to quickly help providers who were struggling to stay open.

But it’s taken the better part of a year for many states to even start the application ...