Child Care

Child care and day care centers in the United States.

Child Care
care or supervision of a child by someone other than the parents. Child-care alternatives include relatives, an au pair or nanny in the home, a babysitter outside the home, and day care centers. Increased numbers of families with one parent or with two working parents have helped create a scarcity of quality child care, particularly for lower- and middle-income families. There is considerable controversy concerning the proper legal safeguards and qualifications for child-care providers. In 1990 some 9 million children were in some type of child care.

Head Start, a federally sponsored preschool program in the United States for children who come from low-income families. Established in 1965 as part of the antipoverty program of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Head Start prepares disadvantaged children for school. Its teachers work with children not only on learning basic subjects such as the alphabet, numbers, and colors but also on learning social skills needed to succeed in school. In addition, Head Start provides health screenings for children. Head Start encourages parents to participate in the program as volunteers in the classroom, on the playground, and on field trips.

Most children who attend Head Start are three- and four-year-olds, but some children are even younger. Since 1994 the program has emphasized working with infants and toddlers as well because research has shown that early mental stimulation is vital to a child's intellectual growth.

Head Start programs are run by local school districts, community action agencies, and other nonprofit groups under grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start activities. The programs exist in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and U.S. territories such as Guam. Native American tribes, such as the Choctaw in Mississippi and the Blackfoot in Montana, also operate Head Start centers, as do various agencies serving the children of migrant farm workers.

Any child whose family earns less than the federal poverty level is eligible to enroll in Head Start. Each local Head Start program may also have 10 percent of its students from families earning more than the federal poverty level. In the late 1990s Head Start enrolled over 800,000 children nationwide, or approximately 40 percent of those eligible. Head Start programs also accommodate children with special needs. In 1998 about 13 percent of the enrollment consisted of children with health or speech impairments, emotional disturbance, mental retardation, or other disabilities.