child care - Digital Library Collections

CHILD
CARE
of three caregivers had annual earnings below the
poverty line for a family offour.
Current issues. Although more resources are
now available to families, many of the problems
highlighted in Windows on Day Care in 1972 remain
just as challenging today. National studies
continue to reveal alarming deficiencies in the
quality of care in many communities. According to
Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care
Centers, a 1995 study conducted by researchers at
the University of Colorado at Denver, the University
of California at Los Angeles, the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yale University,
six out ofseven child care centers provide care
that is mediocre to poor. One in eight might actually
be jeopardizing children's safety and development.
Equally disturbing problems in home-based
care were documented by Ellen Galinsky and others
in a 1994 report for the Families and Work
Institute. According to their Study of Children in
Family Child Care and Relative Care: Highlights of
Findings, one in three settings provided care that
could conceivably hinder a child's development.
Low wages continue to be the norm for child
care providers, just as they were 25 years ago. Child
care teachers and providers today earn less per year
than the average bus driver ($20,150) or garbage
collector ($18,100). Staff employed in child care
centers typically earn about $12,000 per year (only
slightly above minimum wage) and receive no
benefits or paid leave. As a result, turnover among
child care providers is high, shattering the stable
relationship that infants and children need to feel
safe and secure.
In addition, many states have woefully inadequate
health and safety standards for child care.
Staff education and training are among the most
critical elements in improving children's experiences
in child care. Yet 39 states and the District of
Columbia do not require prior training for providers
who look after children in their homes, and 32
states do not demand prior training for teachers in
child care centers (see figures 3.1 and 3.2). In
contrast, becoming a licensed haircutter or manicurist
typically requires about 1,500 hours of training
at an accredited school.
Even the standards that are in place are often
poorly enforced because of a growing number of
child care facilities coupled with insufficient inspection
staff. A 1994 Inspector General's report
on licensed child care centers in five states found
Facts
• Every day, 13 million children-including 6 million infants and
toddlers-ore in child core.
• Two-thirds of mothers of young children work outside the home-many
out of economic necessity. Fifty-five percent of working women provide
half or more of their family's income.
• Half of American parents with young children earn less than $35,000
per year, and two parents working full-time at minimum wage earn
only $21,400 per year. Yet child core can easily cost $4,000 to
$10,000 for a single child.
• Forty percent of infant and toddler rooms in centers provide core that
could jeopardize children's safety and development.
Figures
• Thirty-two states require no prior training for child care teachers. They
are among the lowest-paid workers in America, earning only $12,058
per year, on overage, and receiving no benefits or paid leave.
• Juvenile crime peaks between 3 and 7 p.m., when nearly 5 million
children are left home alone after school.
CHI L D R EN'S D E FEN S E FUN D 39