This week, school districts across the country announced that they were closing for weeks. In Seattle, the hardest-hit American city, schools are closed for six full weeks. Working parents represent an estimated one third of the US workforce and, as their kids stay home, it’s not just their problem: it’s everybody’s problem.

Whether you’re a working parent or not, here are three things to watch as working families adapt to a new normal amidst COVID-19:

Health and Safety: While there is an acknowledged public safety risk in clustering children together in close proximity at their desks, there is another potential public health crisis for America’s most at-risk children. At the time of publication there was no stated plan by state or federal governments to provide meals to the 22 million children in America who depend on free or reduced-priced breakfast and lunch programs at school. Nearly 20% of all American children are already living in food insecure homes, even with these nutritional programs, making the abrupt freeze on what may be their only meal(s) of the day a potential public health crisis.
Productivity and Output: The US has never had more dual-income households and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics nearly 50% of married, heterosexual families are dual-income households. With the inclusion of single-parent households and married same-sex families, that pushes the number of homes where all parents are working parents far above 50%. While parents of older children can ostensibly work remotely while their children participate in virtual classes, I’m hearing from parents of younger children that they’re exploring ways to “take turns” and paring down expectations on their output. While I’ve written in defense of snow days before (something I stand by), snow days are an isolated event. In the northeast region alone, it’s estimated that a single snow day can cost the region over $1 billion in lost productivity. As working parents lose productivity to parenting while schools are closed, we all share that economic impact and burden.

Something Major Founder, Randi Braun, at the 2020 Awesome Women Entrepreneurs Summit.

3. Small Business at Risk: I spent Thursday speaking at the Awesome Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Summit in the Washington, DC area. Perhaps, we all noted, the last conference that is happening in town or elsewhere for the foreseeable future. One text pinged on my phone in between sessions from a salaried mother of young children who joked about getting paid to watch Frozen with her kids. Another came in from a mom of two teenagers in New York joking she was already getting cabin fever with them. Meanwhile, I heard stories from women and mother small business owners who are already feeling the pain of this slow down on their businesses. An event photographer joked that her entire 2021 is booked up with reschedules. She wasn’t laughing, however, when she said she has no work--or income--for the next few months, which is her high season. Small businesses make up 44% of our economic activity, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and more parents are entrepreneurs than ever before. Small business is the first to get hit with events like COVID-19 and, for working-parent entrepreneurs, school closures present an economic double whammy and an even more acute level of risk.

So where do we all go from here? This isn’t the apocalypse and even markets opened Friday morning to a rally.

My call to action is that we all do our part to support each other. I’m making an effort to support small businesses in any way that I can and am reaching out to the organizations I’m involved with like our local DC Diaper Bank here in Washington to see how I can help maintain access for the families we serve. Do you have ideas? I want to hear them and get in touch with me. This storm will pass. Let’s collaborate on ways to support each other while it’s here.

School Closures: Not Just A Working-Parent Problem

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