The early care and education (ECE) system has been under-resourced and undervalued since well before the pandemic. Low pay and poor working environment have long plagued the ECE industry as key drivers of chronic high turnover rates and teacher staffing shortages in the field. Additional disparities within the system place providers on vastly different financial footing as a function of the type of program in which they operate, their access to public funding, and characteristics of the families they serve. The pandemic has exacerbated these pre-existing issues. Using data collected by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) through the 2020 California Early Care and Education Workforce Study, this report takes a closer look at the impact of COVID-19 on ECE programs in California, with a focus on program-level challenges, staffing shortages, and disparities based on program type and center funding type. While federal and state pandemic relief have played an important role in helping programs stay afloat, current job numbers suggest not enough has been done to stabilize child care as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.