Problems in Child Care Found To Persist

By Linda Jacobson

Two new reports—one charting a generation-long lack of progress in solving the nation's day-care problems, and another focusing on the quality of care used by women affected by new welfare-to-work programs—argue that the nation has yet to meet the challenge of providing high-quality child care to a broad spectrum of its children.

It has been almost 30 years since the National Council of Jewish Women released "Windows on Day Care," alerting the country to a looming child-care crunch that would force working parents to struggle to find care that was affordable, much less high-quality. Since then, the group contends in a follow-up report being released this week, not much has changed.

Meanwhile, a second study paints a bleak picture of the quality of child care for a certain group of children—those whose mothers are participating in welfare-to-work programs. "Remember the Children" focuses on 948 single mothers on welfare from cities in...