Images (87)
Showing first 60 of 87 pages.
Document
| id |
id
621031991
|
|---|---|
| contentType |
contentType
document
|
| source |
source
import
|
Source image fields (6)
Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 87Inadequate Child Care
Strains America's Working Families
Every day, three out of five preschoolers are in child care.¹
Children of working mothers are entering care as early as 6 weeks of age and can be in care
for as many as 40 hours a week until they reach school age.
Women work in the overwhelming majority of American families.
62 percent of women with children under age 6 work, and 77 percent of women with children
ages 6-17 are in the labor force. 2
Child care costs are unaffordable for many working families.
About half of families with young children earn less than $35,000 per year.³ A family with
both parents working full-time at minimum wage earns only $21,400 per year.
Child care is a major household expense for working families. Full-day child care easily costs
$4,000 to $10,000 per year equal to what families can pay for college tuition plus room and
board at a public university.⁴ The following are average child care costs for one three-year-
old child; care for babies and toddlers costs even more:⁵
Boston $8,840
Durham $4,630
Dallas $4,210
Boulder $6,240
Oakland $6,500
Minneapolis $6,030
Child care helps shape the way children think, learn, and behave
for the rest of their lives.
A recent report by the Carnegie Corporation confirmed that the quality of child care has a
lasting impact on children's well-being and ability to learn.⁶ Children in poor quality child
care have been found to be delayed in language and reading skills, and display more
aggression toward other children and adults. 7
Child care quality for many American children is inadequate.
6 out of 7 child care centers provide care that is mediocre to poor, according to a recent
national study by a group of universities. One in eight centers were found to be providing
care that could jeopardize children's safety and development.⁸ Equally alarming patterns
were found in a study of home-based care 1 in 3 could be harmful. 9
There are major gaps in the basic health and safety standards for child care in many states,
and even the standards that are in place are often inadequately enforced. For example, in
many states, care in smaller providers' homes is not inspected at all because licensing is not
required, and more than half the states do not annually inspect homes that are licensed. 10
Professional, quality child care is hard to find in a marketplace where child care teachers and
providers do not earn as much as bus drivers ($20,150) or garbage collectors ($18,100) -- or
even bartenders ($14,450). 11 A national wage study found that most child care workers earn
only $12,058 per year (only slightly above minimum wage) and receive no benefits or paid
leave.
12
Staff education and training are among the most critical elements in improving children's
experiences in child care. Yet while hairdressers and manicurists are required to attend 1,500
hours at an accredited school in order to get a license, 40 states (including D.C.) do not
Relations
belongs_to