
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 8, 1994                   TAG: 9404080105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FAMILY DAY CARE DRUBBED

Dropping children off at someone else's home is the most common day-care choice among working parents in this country, but a comprehensive study of "family day care" shows it is often of poor quality and the vast majority of those caregivers are not helping children develop properly.

The most in-depth survey in a decade of this type of care, released Thursday by the New York-based Families and Work Institute, rated only 9 percent of the homes as providing good quality care.

More than one-third of the homes were considered potentially harmful to a child's growth. More than half were rated only adequate or "custodial," meaning they would not harm, but would not enhance, a child's development.

More than half of U.S. mothers of children under age 6 are employed, and millions of pre-schoolers are in family day-care settings.

The study comes as policy-makers consider how to expand access to child care, a component of the Clinton administration's proposed welfare reform, which would require welfare recipients to find jobs after a limited period on public assistance.

Ellen Galinsky, co-president of the Families and Work Institute, and one of the study's authors, said it contradicts some widely held beliefs in finding that:

Child care in a home is not necessarily more nurturing and responsive than in day-care centers.

Children in day care with relatives are not more likely to be attached to their caregiver than those cared for by nonrelatives.

Caregivers with three or four children in their homes were generally more sensitive and responsive than those caring for just one child.

Training is more important than experience in good care.

The study also found that a high percentage of nonregulated homes violate the law, and providers regulated by a government agency are more likely to give high-quality care.

The findings provide important lessons for welfare reform, the authors said. They found one important predictor of good care is whether someone has freely chosen to take care of children, rather than doing so simply to help out a mother. That suggests that as welfare mothers are moved off public aid into employment, they should not be forced to become child-care providers, an idea floated in several states.

Among employed mothers with children under 5 years old, 33 percent use family day care, 28 percent use day-care centers, 28 percent juggle their schedules so children can be cared for by the parents and 10 percent arrange for care in their own homes with a nanny.

The Families and Work Institute study included 820 mothers and 226 providers in Los Angeles/San Fernando, Calif.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Tex.; and Charlotte, N.C.; and relied on interviews and observation at the homes.

The study confirmed that children cared for by sensitive, responsive providers in high-quality settings showed greater cognitive development. It found that children from low-income and minority homes are receiving lower-quality care. And it showed frustration by parents: They reported they have few choices when looking for alternatives, and more than one-quarter said they would use other day care if it were available.

by CNB