Georgia's U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock introduced new legislation on Monday to boost the child care workforce by increasing access to early Head Start programs nationwide.

Child care workers from outside the U.S. often buy health coverage through an agency. But those policies can have big gaps, critics warn. ACA plans are comprehensive and, with subsidies, can be cheap.

More than half a million Americans have died of COVID-19 and, in Georgia, families are grieving the loss of nearly 20,000 loved ones. The pandemic will define a generation of children who lost a parent, grandparent or caregiver. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports. 

At least two-thirds of U.S. families are struggling to find safe and affordable child care as the pandemic rages on. NPR asked infectious disease experts to help sort the health risks of each option.

The economic toll of the pandemic has led to the loss of nearly a quarter million jobs for child care providers, nearly all of whom are women and disproportionately Black or Latina.