Presents some of the major concerns and challenges faced by parents, employers, and the community as a whole in providing quality after-school (and summer) child care programs for elementary school-aged ("latchkey") children. Adequately trained staff and activities providing for children's physical, emotional, and social needs are important. (BB)

Identifies negative public and professional attitudes that lie beneath the contemporary negative image of quality child care. Argues that concepts and principles of marketing are appropriate for influencing parents to choose high quality services and helping ensure that supplementary care is of sufficient quality to enhance, not inhibit, the…

Based on the understanding that the capacity to learn is optimized in the early years, Early Learning Canada (ELC) is a community workshop program for parents and adults who work with children from birth to age 6 and their families to facilitate life-long learning. This workshop leader guide explains the ELC principles, examines learning styles…

In July 2002, Knowledge Works Foundation and the Education Commission of the States assembled key stakeholders to focus on the policy opportunities, needs, and challenges of utilizing technology for coordinated early childhood professional development across the nation. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions held at the meeting…

This public policy report focuses on financing child care in the United States. The report contains brief articles on the following topics: (1) child care wages in comparison to other positions; (2) benefits to businesses when employees have high-quality child care; (3) resources for funding early education systems; (4) comparison of the cost of…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

These stories, with accompanying photographs, were collected during 40 years of teaching preschoolers, directing child care centers, sharing with parents, and working with teachers and teachers-to-be. The anecdotes illustrate the fresh and amusing ways children look at the world; reveal thoughts and feelings that help adults understand better what…

This final report details the activities of the Charlotte Circle Outreach, a program designed to provide technical assistance and training to early intervention programs offering services to infants and young children with substantial disabilities, ages birth through two years. This mission was accomplished through cooperative planning with…

Because a child witness' account is often the only source of information about an alleged incidence of sexual abuse, it becomes imperative to obtain an accurate account from the child so that justice may be achieved. This book provides information on children's linguistic ability in relation to videotaped interviews conducted since the…

This report presents the most recent salary and benefits data available for the U.S. child care workforce. Median level child care salaries are compared to the median salaries of other occupations. In addition, data for average wages of preschool teachers and child care workers are presented for each state, with information on wages available by…

This handbook presents standards for kinship foster care services. The handbook begins with introductory sections describing standards development, detailing how to use the standards, and differentiating standards of excellence; Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children, Inc. (COA) standards for accreditation; and state…

Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) provides an integrated system of child-centered, family-focused, and community-based services targeted to at-risk children from birth to age seven at twelve sites across the country. To access families that are often not in the mainstream of service access and use, SESS programs partner with primary care…

The Creative Curriculum for preschool education is a teaching framework that addresses children's emotional, cognitive, and physical development. This checklist is designed for use in assessing how well the curriculum is being implemented as intended and includes a classroom profile form and a progress and planning form. The implementation…

The 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires early intervention programs to serve children in natural environments. Because of geography and resources, it is often impossible for service providers to visit rural families at home as frequently as families were seen via a center-based model. At first glance,…

The unexpected loss of a loved one, a car accident, or exposure to a violent experience is familiar to many. Everyone reacts to such events, but the responses vary widely, ranging from numbness and withdrawal, to crying, nervousness, and agitation. Because traumatic events are prevalent, cause profound suffering, and may lead to life altering…