It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC.

Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Bridget Bergen, filling in for Brian today.

And to end the show, we turn to childcare.

Specifically, childcare for U.S. families in the summer and how hard

it is to find it and fund it. We're coming to the end of that summer break. That's almost two months

with no place for kids to go and no guaranteed of paid time off for working adults, parents, and

guardians. If the summer child care

scramble is something you can relate to, we want to hear from you. Joining me to discuss

how we got here and what's happening on a legislative level to try and fix it is Elliot Haspel,

senior fellow at Capita, a nonpartisan think tank focused on child care policy, a contributor to the Atlantic, and the author of Crawling Behind, America's Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It.

Elliot, welcome to WNYC.

Thank you so much for having me.

I hope you have the answers to all this for us.

It's a lot that we're going to be looking for in this segment. We'll do it again. Thank you so much for having me. I hope you have the answers to all this for us. It's a lot that we're going to be looking for in this segment. We'll do it again. Listeners. We're going to open up the phones right away for you on this. Parents, caregivers. What specific child care challenges do you experience in this summer? Are there any programs or resources that have really helped you make it work?

Or what patchwork of camps and activities or maybe extra time with family or babysitters did you knit together for your kids this summer?

And for those of you who work as child care workers, what does this season bring for you?

Is there more demand? Are you able to

meet it? Or is there anything else you want to share? Call us now. The number is 212-433 W-N-YC. That's

212-433-9692. You can also text that number. Elliot, you write about how a recent Gallup poll found that

nearly half of parents with school-age children, quote, wished their children would have

participated in summer programs or participated more than they did. Did the poll give any

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