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Carnegie Corporation. The Carnegie Corporation's Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children. New York: Carnegie Corporation, 1994.
The section on child care options was reviewed for this annotated bibliography. The suggestions and observations on improving child care were developed by the Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children.
The Study
- It is unclear whether children in family child care settings experience positive and constant care or are with adults who are often overstressed and unhappy.
- When many parents go back to work after having a child, they are often forced to “make do” with acceptable child care that may not be of highest quality.
The Findings
- The United States needs to ensure that parents have genuine choices in child care by:
- Improving parental leave,
- Ensuring quality care for infants and toddlers,
- Providing parents with affordable, quality care options, and
- Developing networks of family-centered child care programs.
- Quality child care consists of programs that offer care to young children in small groups where they can feel safe and comfortable. Personnel are well trained and the program is linked to comprehensive health and nutritional services.
- Child care professionals believe placing emphasis on consistent standards is key to high quality care.
Informal child care providers should be encouraged by communities to participate in local child care networks.
- Communities should establish these networks and ensure that members comply with child care standards.
- Providers should be encouraged to participate in professional development activities and training. Communities, states, and the federal government should subsidize these trainings.
- Experienced child care providers often leave their jobs because of low wages. These wages are typically unaffected by level of education or degrees.
- Local child care networks are effective in alleviating feelings of provider isolation and offering professional development opportunities.
- Local child care networks should be:
- Comprehensive for all types of child care and for all types of children,
- Developed and operated locally, and
- Centralized as a community institution.
R2P Evaluation
The recommendations in this publication can be found in several other research studies. This publication placed an emphasis on community networks and offered an example from France.
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