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    "title": "Child Care-Child Care Background",
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    "ocrText": "Oct-16-97 02:16P\nP.04\nInadequate Child Care\nStrains America's Working Families\nEvery day, three out of five preschoolers are in child care.¹\nChildren of working mothers are entering care as early as 6 weeks of age and can be in care\nfor 30 hours a week until they reach school age.²\nWomen work in the overwhelming majority of American families.\n3 out of 5 women with children under age 6 work, and 3 out of 4 women with children ages\n6-17 work.³\nChild care costs are unaffordable for many working families.\nAbout half of families with young children earn less than $35,000 per year.⁴ A family with\nboth parents working full-time at minimum wage earns only $21,400 per year.\nChild care is a major household expense for working families. Full-day child care easily costs\n$4,000 to $10,000 per year - equal to what families pay for college tuition plus room and\nboard at a public university.⁵ The following are average child care costs for one three-year-\nold child; care for babies and toddlers costs even more:6\nBoston $8,840\nDurham $4,630\nDallas $4,210\nBoulder $6,240\nOakland $6,500\nMinneapolis $6,030\nChild care helps shape the way children think, learn, and behave\nfor the rest of their lives.\nA recent report by the Carnegie Corporation confirmed that the quality of child care has a\nlasting impact on children's well-being and ability to learn.⁷ Children in poor quality child\ncare have been found to be delayed in language and reading skills, and display more\naggression toward other children and adults.⁸\nChild care quality for many American children is inadequate.\n6 out of 7 child care centers provide care that is mediocre to poor, according to a recent\nnational study by a group of universities. One in eight centers were found to be providing\ncare that could jeopardize children's safety and development.⁹ Equally 10 alarming patterns\nwere found in a study of home-based care -- 1 in 3 could be harmful.\nThere are major gaps in the basic health and safety standards for child care in many states,\nand even the standards that are in place are often inadequately enforced. For example, in\nmany states, care in smaller providers' homes is not inspected at all because licensing is 11 not\nrequired, and more than half the states do not annually inspect homes that are licensed.\nProfessional, quality child care is hard to find in a marketplace that pays child care teachers\nand providers less than bus drivers ($20,150) or garbage collectors ($18,100).¹ A national\nwage study found that most child care workers earn only $12,058 per year (only slightly\nabove minimum wage) and receive no benefits or paid leave.\""
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