Child Care

Early Childhood Studies Find Payoff, Drawbacks Persist for Pupils in Preschool and Child Care
Both the positive and the negative effects of spending long hours in organized child care and preschool are evident even after children move into elementary school, two new studies show.
Linda Jacobson, November 1, 2005
4 min read
School & District Management Child-Care Centers Have Positive Impact, Study Concludes
Preschoolers from low-income families who attend center-based child-care programs have stronger school-readiness skills than those cared for in home-based settings, according to new findings from an ongoing study of families affected by the 1996 welfare overhaul.
Linda Jacobson, February 18, 2004
3 min read
Early Childhood Controversy Erupts Anew Over Tenn. Child-Services Agency
In the latest development in an ongoing controversy, Gov. Phil Bredesen has ordered major changes in the Tennessee Department of Children's Services after a court-ordered audit found the agency was mismanaging many of its obligations to the children it serves.
Joetta L. Sack, December 3, 2003
2 min read
Early Childhood Child-Care Advocacy Group Closes Down After 20 Years
After 20 years of advocating for higher-quality child care, the Child Care Action Campaign will close at the end of next month.
Linda Jacobson, April 23, 2003
2 min read
Early Childhood Late-Night Child Care Meets Needs Of Milwaukee Families
Despite the nation's largely unmet demand for child care outside of traditional work hours, groups that are responding to the need are few and far between. Then there's La Causa.
Mary Ann Zehr, December 11, 2002
6 min read
Early Childhood Reports Highlight Importance Of Caregivers' Education
Child-adult ratios are not nearly as important in family child-care settings as they are in center-based programs. Rather, it's the provider's level of education and training that counts the most in home-based programs, according to a pair of reports in the spring issue of the Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
Linda Jacobson, June 12, 2002
3 min read
Early Childhood Report Claims Child-Care Workers Have Been Largely 'Undercounted'
President Bush says he wants to improve the skills of preschool teachers and child-care providers, but he may be underestimating how many need to be trained, suggests a new report.
Linda Jacobson, May 8, 2002
2 min read
Early Childhood Looking To France
As efforts to expand preschool programs in the United States have increased, so has interest in looking abroad to see how other countries are educating their youngest children. And perhaps no system of early-childhood education has captured the attention of U.S. educators and policymakers quite like the French model.
Linda Jacobson, July 11, 2001
17 min read
Teaching Profession Child-Care Workers Eye Unionization
In what one organizer described as a '60s-style protest rally with guitar music and singing, a group of striking California child-care providers demonstrated on the grounds of the state Capitol in Sacramento last week, saying low wages are keeping good teachers from staying in the field.
Linda Jacobson, May 9, 2001
8 min read
Early Childhood Study: Calif. Child-Care Centers Struggle To Keep Good Teachers
Even child-care programs that are striving to be among the best in the country are struggling to hold on to their teachers and directors, according to the latest findings from a longitudinal study of those who provide care and education to young children.
Linda Jacobson, May 2, 2001
3 min read
School & District Management Study Says More Time in Child Care Connected to Bad Behavior
Children who spend time in child-care centers have better cognitive and language skills than children in other arrangements, including care by their mothers, but those benefits may be coming at a cost, according to the latest findings from a long-running federal study.
Linda Jacobson, April 25, 2001
4 min read
Early Childhood Early Years
Child-Care Quality: A new study offers strong evidence that raising the wages of teachers in child-care centers can improve the quality of the care children receive.
April 11, 2001
2 min read
Early Childhood Two Studies Examine Child-Care Arrangements and Costs
Almost three-fourths of infants and toddlers with working mothers are spending time in child care, and many of those young children are spending at least 25 hours a week in child-care settings, according to one of the first studies to examine the child-care arrangements of children under 3.
Linda Jacobson, January 17, 2001
4 min read
Early Childhood Census Finds Fewer Young Children Being Cared For by Relatives
While their mothers are working, children under 5 are spending less time being cared for by either a parent or another relative, according to the latest data on child care from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Linda Jacobson, November 8, 2000
3 min read