Connie Siskowski speaking at Johns Hopkins University's School of Nursing in September of 2025.
AACY
In classrooms across America, many students carry more than backpacks. They manage medications, translate medical instructions, bathe relatives, and shoulder the burden of keeping their households running.
For 12-year-old Hantz Lafaille, a seventh grader from Boynton Beach, Florida, that responsibility is part of daily life. “On school days, I help for about four hours after homework,” he says. “On weekends, it’s usually more than eight hours.”
Students like Hantz are part of a largely overlooked group known as caregiving youth. For many, the demands at home come at a cost to their education and well-being.
“Caregiving youth are out of sight and out of mind,” says Dr. Connie Siskowski, founder of the American Association of Caregiving Youth and a CNN Hero. A nurse and former school health professional, she began noticing a pattern among students who were chronically tired, falling behind, and quietly taking on adult responsibilities at home.
“Imagine you’ve been up all night taking care of your mom, and you didn’t get your homework done. Is it really horrible to allow that child to turn in the homework a little late?”
- Connie Siskowski
Schools and society in general are largely unaware that a youth caregiving crisis exists, “…because all the work of the child is behind closed doors,” Siskowski says. “You see a child pushing an adult in a wheelchair. You can think, ‘Oh, that’s so nice that he’s helping.’ But do you think about what happens when they get home?”
Siskowski’s work has raised awareness of this hidden population of children caring for family members with chronic illness, disability, mental health conditions, or age-related decline.
Caregiving is commonly perceived as an adult role, but national data suggest otherwise. A report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP estimates that more than 5.4 million young people in the U.S. provide care to a family member (roughly one in 14 children).
Research published in The Lancet Public Health suggests that caregiving youth exist in nearly every country, though they are rarely counted in official systems.
Siskowski says these young people are performing complex, adult-level tasks without training, recognition, or a safety net.
For Hantz, those numbers reflect his routine. His grandmother lives with arthritis and osteoporosis, and he and his sister help with feeding, bathing, medication, and doctor visits.
“We do it because we have to,” he says. “And we do it because that’s what family does.”
Students who serve as caregivers are more likely to experience chronic absenteeism, lower academic performance, behavioral challenges, and social isolation. According to the American Association of Caregiving Youth (AACY), students who provide care often struggle to finish assignments or stay engaged in class, especially kids with late-night caregiving duties.
“Imagine you’ve been up all night taking care of your mom, and you didn’t get your homework done,” Siskowski says. “Is it really horrible to allow that child to turn in the homework a little late?”
“I don’t really have time to hang out with friends like most kids,” Hantz says. “But that’s okay. Because this is what love looks like in our home.”
Research from the Urban Institute shows that chronic absenteeism is closely tied to lower graduation rates and has long-term consequences for income and health.
A study published in Child: Care, Health and Development found that caregiving youth show higher levels of anxiety, depression, and stress than their peers. The adult responsibilities that many of them shoulder can significantly shape how they see themselves and their role in the family.
Hantz Lafaille, South Tech Prep student and AACY member.
AACY
“They’re worried about things most adults struggle to manage,” Siskowski says. “Finances, health crises, whether their loved one will survive.”
“There’s stigma,” she adds. “Some families don’t want to disclose what’s happening at home. Some children don’t even realize that what they’re doing has a name.”
“I’ve learned how to be patient, how to be strong, and how to put someone else’s needs before your own,” Hantz says.
That kind of growth is often seen as a strength, but experts caution that it does not replace the need for support.
Most schools don’t ask students about caregiving responsibilities, so signs such as fatigue or unfinished assignments are often treated as isolated issues rather than part of a larger pattern.
Meanwhile, healthcare providers tend to focus on the patient without always considering who supports them at home.
“There’s a disconnect,” Siskowski says. “Healthcare providers may treat the patient, but they don’t always look at who is supporting that patient at home. And very often, it’s a child.”
As a result, caregiving youth often move between systems without coordinated support.
Programs developed by the American Association of Caregiving Youth identify students who provide care and connect them with school-based and community resources. Support can include academic accommodations, counseling, skills training, and assistance with navigating health systems.
Schools that have implemented these programs record higher attendance and academic outcomes, along with reduced stress.
“When you acknowledge these students and give them support,” Siskowski says, “you change their trajectory.”
For Hantz, that support made a difference. “It helps kids like me feel less alone and gives us the support we need to do well in school and take care of our families,” he says. He also points to experiences like Camp Treasure, where youth in caregiving roles meet peers with similar responsibilities. “It’s a chance to just be a kid for a little while.”
Caregiving youth are more likely to come from communities with restricted access to healthcare and paid caregiving services.
In many families, caregiving dynamics are shaped by cultural expectations. “In my culture, family means everything,” says Hantz, who is of Haitian descent. “We’re taught to take care of each other no matter what.”
That sense of responsibility can serve as a source of strength, but it may also contribute to invisibility when systems are not designed to recognize it.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that lower-income households and communities of color are more likely to rely on informal caregiving networks. This adds pressure for students already facing structural challenges.
“If we don’t address caregiving youth,” Siskowski says, “we are reinforcing cycles of inequity.”
A recent article in TIME reported that proposed Medicaid cuts could reduce access to home-based care services. When that support disappears, the responsibility commonly shifts to families.
As a journalist and former caregiving youth, Lisa McCarty wrote, “the burden doesn’t go away, it moves into the home.”
For families already managing care with limited resources, that shift can mean more children taking on caregiving roles.
Addressing the needs of youth in caregiving roles requires a coordinated effort across systems. Schools can identify students who provide care and extend flexibility. Medical professionals can consider family dynamics in caregiving. Authorities can expand funding for home-based care and youth caregiver programs. Communities can work to lower stigma and increase awareness.
Some states have begun taking steps toward this goal, but progress has been inconsistent.
Siskowski often returns to a simple starting point. What if schools simply asked students whether they are caregivers?
“That one question can change everything,” she says. “Because once you know, you can help.”
Without recognition, caregiving youth face a higher risk of falling behind and carrying long-term consequences into adulthood. With support, many stay on track.
“They are some of the most resilient, compassionate, capable young people you will ever meet,” Siskowski says. “They just need someone to recognize what they’re doing and stand beside them.”
For Hantz, caregiving is both a responsibility and a routine. “It’s not always easy,” he says. “But AACY reminds me that I’m not the only one.”
Across the country, millions of young people are navigating similar realities.
Whether they are supported often depends on whether anyone sees them.
The Well Beings Blog supports the critical health and wellbeing of all individuals, to raise awareness, reduce stigma and discrimination, and change the public discourse. The Well Beings campaign was launched in 2020 by WETA, the flagship PBS station in Washington, D.C., beginning with the Youth Mental Health Project, followed by the 2022 documentary series Ken Burns Presents Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, a film by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers (Now streaming on the PBS App). WETA has continued its award-winning Well Beings campaign with the new documentary film Caregiving, executive produced by Bradley Cooper and Lea Pictures, that premiered June 24, 2025, streaming now on PBS.org.
For more information: #WellBeings #WellBeingsLive wellbeings.org. You are not alone. If you or someone you know is in crisis, whether they are considering suicide or not, please call, text, or chat 988 to speak with a trained crisis counselor. To reach the Veterans Crisis Line, dial 988 and press 1, visit VeteransCrisisLine.net to chat online, or text 838255.
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