abstract: 'In April 2020, nearly 1.6 billion learners were out of school. While a

  growing body of literature has documented the detrimental impact of

  these closures on children, less attention has been devoted to the steps

  countries took to mitigate the impact of these closures on working

  families. Paid leave is recognized as an important policy tool to enable

  working parents the time they need to respond to family needs without

  risking job or income loss. This article uses a novel data set to assess

  whether countries had policies in place prior to the pandemic to respond

  to increased care needs and the extent to which policies were introduced

  or expanded during the pandemic to fill the gap. Only 48 countries had

  policies in place prior to the pandemic that could be used to respond to

  the care needs created by school and childcare center closures. In the

  vast majority of these countries, the duration of leave in these

  policies was too short to meet the care needs of the pandemic or relied

  on parents reserving extended parental leave options. Only 36 countries

  passed new legislation during the pandemic, but the majority of those

  that did covered the full duration of closures. As countries continue to

  face COVID-19 and consider how to better prepare for the next pandemic,

  emergency childcare paid leave policies should be part of pandemic

  preparedness frameworks to prevent further exacerbating inequalities.

  The policies introduced during the pandemic offer a wide range of

  approaches for countries to identify feasible solutions.'
affiliation: 'Raub, A (Corresponding Author), Univ Calif Los Angeles, WORLD Policy
  Anal Ctr, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.

  Raub, Amy; Heymann, Jody, Univ Calif Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.

  Raub, Amy, Univ Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.'
author: Raub, Amy and Heymann, Jody
author-email: araub@ph.ucla.edu
author_list:
- family: Raub
  given: Amy
- family: Heymann
  given: Jody
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/14680181221123800
earlyaccessdate: SEP 2022
eissn: 1741-2803
files: []
issn: 1468-0181
journal: GLOBAL SOCIAL POLICY
keywords: 'Childcare; COVID-19; education; global; paid leave; social protection;

  working families'
keywords-plus: 'MATERNITY LEAVE; CHILDREN; HEALTH; EMPLOYMENT; RESPONSES; PARENTS;

  INCOME'
language: English
month: AUG
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '62'
orcid-numbers: 'Heymann, Jody/0000-0003-0008-4198

  Raub, Amy/0000-0002-5207-0807'
pages: 247-267
papis_id: cb4a866a7ffe5b2d3fe87b79086b9d20
ref: Raub2023assessingnational
times-cited: '0'
title: Assessing national action through emergency paid leave to mitigate the impact
  of COVID-19-related school closures on working families in 182 countries
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000853206700001
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '3'
volume: '23'
web-of-science-categories: Political Science
year: '2023'