Back-to-school is usually framed as a family milestone: new teachers, new routines, new schedules.
For working parents, it can also introduce a new layer of unpredictability into the workday. A child who wakes up sick, an unexpected call from the school nurse, a gap in after-school care, or an appointment that can’t happen outside working hours can quickly require a parent to shift their attention—and their schedule.
Individually, these disruptions may seem small. Collectively, they create a largely invisible workforce challenge, measured not only in missed workdays, but in interrupted schedules, divided attention, and time spent figuring out what to do next.
The school year doesn’t just change family schedules. It changes the workday, too.
The hidden cost isn’t always absenteeism
When we think about the workplace impact of supporting a family, missed work is often the first metric that comes to mind. But absenteeism tells only part of the story.
Consider a parent who gets a call from the school nurse at 11 AM. Even if they never leave work, that call can set off a series of decisions about whether their child needs to come home, who can pick them up, whether they need to see a pediatrician, and how the disruption will affect the rest of the day—or even the next. The employee may never miss a full day of work, but the disruption still carries a productivity cost, one that traditional measures of absenteeism can easily miss.
A family disruption doesn’t have to take an employee out of work to affect the workday.
And when childcare arrangements break down, the impact can become substantial. New U.S. Census Bureau research found that among households with children ages 13 and younger that experienced problems obtaining adequate childcare in 2024, families lost an average of 65.8 days of work time due to childcare problems. Among households whose youngest child was school-aged, between 6 and 13, the average was 56.3 days.¹
When a small disruption creates a much bigger decision
The challenge isn’t simply that working parents have responsibilities outside of work. It’s that unexpected family needs often require them to make consequential decisions quickly, while managing everything else on their plate.
A sick child can raise immediate questions about whether they need to be seen, where to seek support, how quickly an appointment is available, or whether the issue can safely be managed at home. Behavioral health concerns can be even more difficult to navigate, particularly when parents aren’t sure what type of support their child needs or where to find it.
The burden isn’t only the health issue itself. It’s navigating what comes next—and doing so while the rest of the workday continues. For employers, this is where the back-to-school story becomes a benefits story. Access matters, but so does helping employees understand where to turn, reach the right resources sooner, and spend less time navigating support on their own.
Family needs rarely follow business hours
Traditional healthcare access doesn’t always align neatly with family life. A fever doesn’t wait for Monday morning. A question about a child’s symptoms can surface after dinner. And parents often need to decide whether something requires immediate attention long after a pediatrician’s office has closed.
WIN’s own utilization data illustrates the point with 95% of virtual pediatric visits through WINkid occurring within 60 minutes, and 70% taking place at night or on weekends—when most pediatric offices are closed.2
As WIN CEO Roger Shedlin, MD, explained in Employee Benefit News, WIN’s model was designed in part to address the access gaps that working families encounter outside traditional office hours. The article also highlights 24/7 access to WIN Nurse Care Advocates through WINkid, along with pediatric physical and behavioral health resources and at-home diagnostic tools.2
For working parents, faster access can mean less time spent searching for answers and greater confidence about what to do next. For employers, it demonstrates something broader: The value of a family benefit depends partly on whether employees can access it when real life actually happens.
Back-to-school is the moment. Family well-being is the bigger story.
The return to school makes these pressures particularly visible, but they don’t disappear once new routines settle in. The needs themselves can also look very different. One employee may need a pediatrician after their child wakes up sick. Another may need backup care when school is unexpectedly closed. Someone else may be trying to support an aging parent while raising children of their own.
These aren’t interchangeable challenges and they don’t require identical solutions. But from the employee’s perspective, they can share something important: each creates another complex family need that has to be navigated alongside the workday.
Research on employees caring for older adults reinforces just how far the workforce implications extend. A peer-reviewed study published in Value in Health found that 23.3% of employed caregivers of older adults experienced caregiving-related absenteeism or presenteeism during a one-month period. Among those affected, work productivity loss averaged approximately 34%.3
For employers, the takeaway isn’t that every family challenge is a caregiving issue. It’s that employees’ responsibilities evolve across life stages, while the workplace impact often follows them.
The answer isn’t another back-to-school benefit
For employers, the strategic opportunity isn’t to build a new program for every disruption employees might encounter. It’s to create a connected system of support that can respond differently depending on what an employee actually needs.
During back-to-school alone, that might mean pediatric support when a child is sick, parenting guidance through a difficult transition, behavioral health resources when concerns arise, or childcare and backup care support when arrangements fall through.
Those needs may require different expertise and resources. What employees shouldn’t have to do is navigate an increasingly fragmented benefits ecosystem to figure out which one applies. Back-to-school provides a timely example of the challenge. A connected family-building and family well-being strategy is the longer-term answer.
What connected support looks like
Within WINSuite, connected support doesn’t mean treating every family need the same. It means bringing specialized support together so employees have a clearer path to the right resource.
Through WINkid, families can access 24/7 virtual pediatric support, pediatric behavioral health resources, child development expertise, neurodiversity testing and support, and parenting coaching. Through WINCares, employees can receive expert guidance for childcare and eldercare needs, connect with vetted care resources, access backup care support, and receive help managing the emotional and logistical demands of caregiving.
And these programs sit within a broader family-building and family well-being model spanning preconception, fertility, maternity, parenting, caregiving, menopause, and other major life transitions. The value isn’t in collapsing these needs into one solution, it’s in connecting specialized expertise through one employee experience.
A question for employers this school year
As families settle into another school year, employers have an opportunity to look beyond whether parenting, pediatric, or caregiving resources appear on the benefits roster and consider how employees actually experience them.
When something unexpected happens, how quickly can an employee find the right support? How much of the workday is spent figuring out where to turn? And are your benefits reducing that burden—or adding another place employees have to navigate?
These questions matter during back-to-school season—and long after it ends.
Looking ahead
Back-to-school may be seasonal, but supporting working families isn’t. Employers have an opportunity to make family benefits more useful not simply by adding resources, but by connecting employees to expert guidance and support across the moments that shape their lives—from fertility and maternity to parenting, pediatric health, caregiving, menopause, and beyond.
See how WIN can help you build a more connected family-building and family well-being strategy—supporting employees through back-to-school and every stage that comes before and after it.
1.U.S. Census Bureau. Child Care Challenges and Adaptations: Findings from the 2025 CPS ASEC. May 2026. Based on childcare experiences during 2024 among households with children ages 13 and younger.
2. Hafner, Lee. “WIN’s new solution makes pediatric care more accessible.” Employee Benefit News, October 9, 2025. Includes WIN utilization data and commentary from Roger Shedlin, MD, on virtual pediatric access, after-hours utilization, Nurse Care Advocacy, pediatric behavioral health, and working-parent productivity.
3. Wolff, J.L., et al. “Caregiving-Related Work Productivity Loss Among Employed Family and Other Unpaid Caregivers of Older Adults.” Value in Health, 2023. Among employed caregivers of older adults, 23.3% experienced caregiving-related absenteeism or presenteeism over a one-month period; among those affected, average work productivity loss was approximately 34%.
