Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 6, 1995 TAG: 9502060079
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The study, conducted by a team of academics at four universities and scheduled for release today, rated just one in seven centers as good, where children enjoyed close relationships with adults and teachers focused on the individual needs of the children.
The study said problems were most prevalent in care for the youngest children: 40 percent of infant and toddler rooms were given poor ratings.
``The level of quality at most U.S. child-care centers, especially in infant/toddler rooms, does not meet children's needs for health, safety, warm relationships and learning,'' according to the report, which was funded by several major foundations. While quality varies widely, the report concluded, most child care is ``sufficiently poor to interfere with children's emotional and intellectual development.''
The findings come as Congress debates whether to require millions of single mothers on welfare to work, which would increase dramatically the need for child care at the same time federal funding for such care may be reduced.
The study, titled ``Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers,'' is one of a handful of comprehensive studies of day care. It follows by less than a year a study by the New York-based Families and Work Institute, which found comparably poor levels of care available in ``family day care,'' in which children go to another person's home rather than to a center.
Together, the studies paint a bleak picture of child care, a subject of intense interest in this country, where more than half of mothers of young children are employed.
``It is a wake-up call,'' said Barbara Willer, spokeswoman for the National Association for the Education of Young Children here. ``As a nation we have not paid enough attention to the daily environment of 5 million of our preschool children.''
Among employed mothers with children under age 5, 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 new study found that parents greatly overestimate the quality of care their children are receiving. Ninety percent of parents surveyed as part of the study rated their children's programs as very good, while trained observers found that most of the same centers were poor to mediocre.
``Parents need to be much better informed consumers,'' said Suzanne Helburn, an economist at the University of Colorado and principal investigator on the study. ``They need to spend as much time looking for child care as buying a new car.''
Among the most troubling findings, the study said, was the relatively lower quality of care for the youngest children.
``Babies in poor-quality rooms are vulnerable to more illness because basic sanitary conditions are not met for diapering and feeding; are endangered because of safety problems that exist in the room; miss warm, supportive relationships with adults; and lose out on learning because they lack the books and toys required for physical and intellectual growth,'' the report said.
In the poorest-quality centers, researchers said they observed no warmth or support from the adults toward the children. The teachers were not encouraging any learning, and the centers were run in such a way that children could become ill or hurt because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
The poor-quality centers also paid their teachers poorly. The average hourly wage for teachers in the centers studied was $7.22, and for assistant teachers it was $5.70. The researchers found that several factors improved the quality of care, including a higher number of teachers per group, higher teacher education and a more experienced administrator. Centers that were required to meet certain standards provided better quality, as did those with sources of funding other than parent fees. Those included centers in public schools, colleges and universities; those run by municipal agencies; and those at work sites.
Centers with access to additional funds, such as employer subsidies, pay higher wages, have higher staff-to-child ratios and have teachers who have been on the job longer.
Researchers found a wide variation among state licensing requirements and said there were fewer poor-quality centers in states with the most demanding standards.
Researchers used as their standards in the study those issued by the NAEYC, which recommends staffing ratios of one adult for every three to four infants, one adult for four or five 2-year-olds and one adult for eight to 10 4-year-olds. The organization recommends that day-care teachers have at a minimum a ``child development certificate,'' which usually requires a nine-month study program, and that directors have at least a bachelor's degree in a related subject and three years' experience.
The study found that quality was higher in centers where more teachers had college degrees.
The researchers also concluded that children in higher-quality care benefit socially and intellectually, have a more positive view of themselves and are more likely to share a warm relationship with their teachers.
The researchers observed 400 centers in four states: California, Colorado, Connecticut and North Carolina. The centers did not include traditional preschools, where children attend only part of the day and part of the year. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of North Carolina; and Yale University.
The report recommended that states implement higher standards for child care and that governments and the private sector spend more to help families pay for child care and improve staff training.
by CNB