The weekly state of the global childcare crisis. What happened, why it matters at your kitchen table, and where the source is — ending, always, with hope.
One map shows where care is missing. Another shows where climate is closing schools. Together they tell the same story: parents are being asked to work inside systems that still have no reliable plan for who holds the children.
Post-pandemic reporting shows 46% of American families with young children live in areas with too few licensed care slots. Missouri and Kansas are now testing very different state responses.
See the May timeline entry →Extreme heat closed schools across Delhi and many Indian states from mid-May into late June, pushing mothers out of work and into fragile backup-care arrangements.
Read Week 2 →Every report, every number, back to the beginning — the running timeline of despair and hope.
India's heat closures, the post-pandemic childcare desert map, Missouri and Kansas — and why every global crisis still lands locally.
Missouri's new waitlist, Indiana's voucher backlog, the price of care — and what the Circle can do this week.
The next dispatch belongs here when the next Crisis Watch is ready. Same place, same purpose.
