CHILD CARE

CHILD CARE

The supervision and nurturing of a child, including casual and informal services provided by a parent and more formal services provided by an organized child care center.

Because there are many different views
about how a child should be reared or nurtured, the topic of child care often involves controversial social and political issues. For instance, it may raise complex questions about a child’s religious upbringing or whether a child should be disciplined with CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Some people believe that providing child care outside the home undermines so-called traditional family structures in which the mother is considered the primary caretaker.Others are concerned primarily with broadening community responsibility for children and removing barriers for women who wish to enter and participate fully in the labor force. In addition, the term child care encompasses a wide range of services. It can include home-based care by a child’s mother or father, care by a grandparent or other relative, care by a nanny, or care by an organized licensed facility or family center. It can also involve early childhood education such as that offered by nursery schools, Montessori schools, and kindergarten programs.

According to a 1997 study by the Urban
Institute, an estimated 76 percent of preschool
children with mothers who are employed are
cared for by someone other than their parents.
According to these statistics, center-based daycare
centers cared for 32 percent of children
throughout the United States. By comparison,
23 percent of the children were cared for by relatives,
while 16 percent were cared for by a
childcare provider in the provider’s home. Six
percent of the children were cared for by a
nanny or a babysitter in the child’s home.

Child care has always existed in the United
States. Organized childcare centers in the early
1800s took the form of infant day schools in
parts of Boston and New York. During the
industrial revolution, and as a result of increased
immigration to the United States, day nurseries
were created in the late nineteenth century to
care primarily for poor urban children. In New
York City, in approximately 1910, 85 such nurseries
cared for more than 5000 children each
day. Day nurseries were privately run and charitable
in nature and were intended to provide
custodial supervision, hygiene instruction, and
nutrition services. Later, many middle-class
parents opted to enroll their children in kindergartens,
educational programs adopted in parts
of the United States in the mid-nineteenth
century.

During WORLD WAR II, millions of women
entered the workforce in war production areas.
The need for an organized childcare program
became acute. Congress responded by including
provisions in the Community Facilities Act of
1941, then more commonly known as the LANHAM
ACT, which created Lanham Act centers for
child care. (As of the early 2000s, the term Lanham
Act is generally used to refer to the Trademark
Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1051 et. seq.)
The establishment of the Lanham Act centers
marked the first time the federal government
became directly involved in providing childcare
services to children who were not poor: the centers
were open to all children whose parents
worked in war production areas. The federal
government provided 50 percent of the funds
needed to operate the Lanham Act centers; states, localities, and parents provided the
remaining 50 percent in matching funds. In
1943, the cost to parents for child care in a Lanham
Act center was uniformly set at 50 cents a
day.

The federally sponsored Lanham Act centers
closed in 1946, soon after World War II ended,
although California continued them at a state
level. After that, direct federal involvement in a
national childcare program virtually ceased.
Although the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive
Child Development Act of 1972, which
would have in part established a national childcare
program, President RICHARD M. NIXON
vetoed the bill. Nixon stated that the act would
“commit the vast moral authority of the
national government to the side of communal
approaches to child-rearing over and against the
family-centered approach.” Nixon’s statement
reflected the continuing debate about the appropriateness
of providing child care outside a traditional
family structure.

Although in the early 2000s the federal government
does not have a national child care program,
it does provide numerous social programs
that include funding for childcare services. In
2000, the U.S. states spent an estimated $8 billion
on child care. Of this number, approximately
$6 billion came from the federal
government in the form of subsidies provided
by a number of programs.

The Head Start program provides developmental
education programs primarily to poor
children under the age of four. WELFARE programs
such as Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC) provide funds for states to
implement childcare services for parents—usually
mothers—who receive welfare grants. The
Family Support Act of 1988 (FSA), Pub. L.
100–485, 102 Stat. 2343, created the federal Jobs
Opportunity and Basic Skills (JOBS) program,
in which qualifying parents who receive AFDC
are required to enter education or training programs
to enhance their chances of finding
employment. The federal government funds the
JOBS program by providing money to the states.
The states in turn are allowed to choose the
method of providing childcare services to welfare
recipients. They may provide child care
directly, reimburse parents for childcare
expenses, or make direct payments to childcare
providers. In 1993, the federal government spent
approximately $480 million on FSA childcare
subsidies.

The federal government also provides funds
to states through the Social Services Block
Grant, under title XX of the SOCIAL SECURITY
ACT, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1397a et seq., as well as
funds for the operation of the At-Risk Child
Care Program. The At-Risk Program divides
more than $350 million among state governments
for childcare subsidies to families who are
at risk of welfare dependency; the states must
match the grants before they can use the money.
Finally, the federal government allows families
to deduct childcare expenses from their taxes in
the form of the federal dependent care tax
credit.

In response to increasing demands, Congress
passed the Family and Medical Leave Act of
1993 (FMLA), Pub. L. 103–3, 107 Stat. 6.
Although the FMLA does not directly provide
for childcare services, it does mandate in part
that employers with more than 50 employees
must allow those employees to take up to 12
weeks of unpaid leave for the birth or ADOPTION
of a child or in order to take care of a child with
a serious health condition.Many states also have
parental leave legislation, which allows a parent
to take unpaid time off for the birth or adoption
of a child. The length of time allowed for unpaid
leave varies from state to state and may be from
six weeks to six months.

The regulation of childcare services occurs primarily on the state level, with the federal government requiring states to implement minimal regulations for private childcare centers. When
Peggy McMartin Buckey and Raymond Buckey were accused of sexually abusing children in a day care center in California in the early 1980s, their case (McMartin v. Children’s Institute Intern., 212 Cal. App. 3d 1393, 261 Cal. Rptr. 437
[Cal. App. 1989]) and others like it received national media attention. Out of a stated concern for the notice given to such allegations, the federal government passed legislation in 1985 that appropriated funds to the states to provide training for childcare workers and to support
licensing and enforcement officials. The federal
government also required states to implement
procedures that would require childcare centers
to screen workers for any criminal history. In
addition, the Child Care and Development
Block Grant of 1990 (CCDBG), which provided
funds to state government agencies to subsidize
childcare services for low-income working parents,
required states to develop minimum health
and safety requirements for state-licensed childcare
centers. Amendments to the CCDBG in
1995 removed such requirements but did obligate
states to ensure that parents or guardians
may visit or have access to a child while the child
is in a child care center.

The regulation of child care facilities and
caregivers on the state level varies considerably.
A state may require a child care center to obtain
a license in order to operate, or it may mandate
certain minimum standards for all child care
facilities. As of the early 2000s, every state
requires that space for a child care facility be
“adequate” or of a certain specified size. Most
states also regulate how many child care workers
must be on duty for a specified number of children,
depending on the age of the children: for
instance, New York requires one caregiver on
duty for every two children under the age of
two. Most states also regulate the qualifications
and training requirements for child care workers
and require child care centers to determine
whether a job applicant or worker has a criminal
record or has been listed in the state’s CHILD
ABUSE registry. Some states, such as Arkansas
and South Carolina, in some circumstances allow corporal punishment of children in their
licensed day care centers.

Most states exempt certain child care centers
from regulations or licensing requirements.
Religious or church-based day care centers, as
well as small home-based day care programs, are
often exempt from regulations or licensing
requirements other than basic health and safety
regulations. In addition, private day care groups
or associations may set goals for quality child
care and may provide certification or accreditation
programs for member centers.

FURTHER READINGS
Berry, Mary Frances. 1993. The Politics of Parenthood: Child
Care,Women’s Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother.
New York: Viking.
Capone, Angela, et al. 2003. Childmate: A Guide to Appraising
Quality in Child Care. Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar
Learning.
Hayes, Cheryl D., John L. Palmer, and Martha J. Zaslow, eds.
1990. Who Cares for America’s Children: Child Care Policy
for the 1990’s. Washington, D.C.: National Academy
Press.
Jackson, Sonia, et al. 2004. People under Three: Young Children
in Day Care. New York: Routledge.
Lombardi, Joan. 2003. Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care
to Promote Education, Support Families, and Build Communities
Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple Univ. Press.
Ring, B., ed. 2001. The Child Care Disaster in America: Disdain
or Disgrace? Huntington, N.Y.: Nova Science.
Steinfels, Margaret O’Brien. 1973. Who’s Minding the Children:
The History and Politics of Day Care in America.
New York: Simon & Schuster.
Youcha, Geraldine. 1995.Minding the Children: Child Care in
America from Colonial Times to the Present. New York:
Scribner.

CROSS-REFERENCES
Family Law; Parent and Child;Welfare.