Child care
[11] All childcare workers must have, or be undertaking, the minimum Certificate III in Children's Services in order to work in a center (Recognition of Prior Learning is available to help qualify staff with many years experience, but no qualifications).
This policy change is reflected in the 2021 Canadian budget, which invests up to $8.3 billion for child care services for early learning and for indigenous communities.
Certain scholars and individuals accredit the near universal participation in the Danish child care system as a model that other countries should follow in order to increase educational attainment and equality.
It provides food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, contraceptive counselling, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.
[29] Parents apply to licensed childcare in Japan through a single point of access by visiting their local municipal government, which handles all the payments and manages the master waiting list for the neighbourhood.
[29] In Mexico, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa created a Social Program named "Programa de Estancias Infantiles" that included more than 8,000 daycare spaces for children between 1 and 3.11 years old.
[35] This caused a huge gap in the children that could be covered due to the fairly large number of women working in the informal sector and being denied these services.
[39] In Spain, beyond maternity leave provisions of four months, families frequently choose to enroll their children in pre-school programs, including about 95–97% of three to four year olds that attend a combination of state and private nurseries.
The Professional Association for Childcare & Early Years promotes and supports high-quality child-minding expertise, and provides information for childminders and parents.
"[citation needed] Various proposals have been considered, but to date, none leading to legislation that would establish a national policy supporting day care in the United States.
[US 9] Economics professor Nancy Folbre reported on a weakness of the Commission for the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress in Paris, saying that one of the major weaknesses of the press coverage of the commission's report in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times was the lack of consideration for unpaid work, such as that of family or community members.
"[49] Child Care Aware of America supported the bill, saying that it is "time to strengthen minimum protections for children," which they believed the reauthorization and amendments would do.
Afterschool Alliance also supported the bill, saying "it is important to emphasize the value of quality school-age child care to achieve positive outcomes for children, including improved academic performance, work habits and study skills.
On 12 September 2014, House and Senate leaders reached a bipartisan agreement to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act.
Negotiated by Representatives John Kline (R-MN), George Miller (D-CA), Todd Rokita (R-IN), and David Loebsack (D-IA), and Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Richard Burr (R-NC), the agreement will enhance transparency, strengthen health and safety protections, and improve the quality of care.
[51] In the United States—unlike many other developing countries—a full economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has been "hampered" by one of its "most daunting obstacles"—"America's already fragile child-care system".
[US 11] In a Bloomberg interview the University of California, Berkeley's Center for the Study of Child Care Employment said that the American child-care system had been "upended".
Both state and county agency legislation regulate the ratios (number and ages of children) allowed per family child care home.
Many family childcare home providers may be certified with the same credentials as center based staff potentially leading to higher level of care.
In monetary- and production-based societies (such as in the United States), informal childcare is seen in families who do not have enough funds to finance placing their children in a more expensive child care facility.
By studying a large selection of children from the Norwegian childcare system, he concluded that the number of hours a child spends at a daycare and their behavior do not have a dependent relationship.
[67] Though in America, children who attend childcare systems have a higher risk of externalizing the symptoms of negative social behavior, exhibiting these traits can directly correlate with their time spent in the center.
[68] A study that followed up on the randomized Abecedarian Early Intervention Project showed that 5 years of high-quality, targeted cognitively and linguistically stimulating center-based care starting between 3 and 21 weeks of age resulted in significant changes in midlife brain structure in males.
As a matter of social policy, consistent, good daycare, may ensure adequate early childhood education for children of less skilled parents.
One survey suggested that the value of a mother's work, if she were paid the average wage for each task she performs in running the household and caring for her children, is $117,867 per year.
Although disagreements abound, some genetic studies indicate that their population size at one point may have resembled that of a modern endangered species, possibly no more numerous than today’s mountain gorillas.
Population expansion on such a scale is inconsistent with female tolerance of infanticide, harassment, or the heavy costs to mothers of male philandering and double standards.
The same pattern of caregiving is seen in the Kikuyu people in Kenya, where mothers in the horticultural society are often away working, which relies on siblings, cousins, and neighbors to care for children as young as 4 months old.
This informal care includes verbal direction and other explicit training regarding the child's behavior, and is often as simple as "keeping an eye out" for younger siblings.
Whether the providers are the child's siblings or a member of the family/community, research dictates this type of care influences factors such as sense achievement, affiliation, conformity, and individual interests.
