“People don't think about those parents,” Angelique Marshall, a Washington, D.C.-based at-home childcare provider, told Salon. Most of the parents the 56-year-old serves have children with disabilities and don't have much flexibility in their schedules. “They have to go to work to be able to take off when the children need surgery or they have a serious illness or impact on their life.”
Under the Trump administration, the nation’s pandemic-stressed child welfare system has taken a hit through temporary funding freezes, staffing cuts and Project 2025-aligned moves to weaken critical programs. The changes — some part of President Donald Trump’s effort to slash social spending — place a strain on the government’s distribution of funds and support for programs like Head Start and the Child Care and Development Fund, argued a group of U.S. senators in an April letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By the time those changes trickle down to providers like Marshall and the families she serves, the impacts feel much more like crashing waves.
