A crisis in ‘all corners of the state’

When COVID-19 struck the nation in the spring of last year, Amy Mayfield Lusche was one of the millions of working women left in a child care quandary.

Even before the crisis, Ms. Lusche, the owner of Iowa City’s Groovy Katz Salon & Spa and mother of a high school senior, a 13-year-old and 2-year-old Felix, was keeping many balls afloat while running her 16-person business. Like 69% of Iowans…