In 1946 the well-known Danish educator Sofie Rifbjerg (1886-1991) travelled for six months to the USA. The purpose of her trip was to study American developmental psychology. On her way she spent some time at the Institute of Child Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. The institute had become famous because of its working on…

Research shows that children benefit when they are served by stable and highly trained center-based staff and caregivers. Responding to the unequal distribution of child-care supply across the state and a need for well-trained caregivers, First 5 California approved an initiative to train early care and education (ECE) staff using different…

School districts are central players in the child care delivery system: they operate a mix of child care centers and programs, serve a range of children of different ages, and fund their programs from a variety of federal, state, and local sources. This report provides a range of programmatic and fiscal information about the federal and state…

Attendance in preschool centers can yield short-term benefits for children from poor or middle-class families. Yet debate persists in Europe and the United States over whether centers yield gains of sufficient magnitude to sustain children's cognitive or social advantages as they move through primary school. We report on child care and home…

Over half of this nation's children 5 years and under are in nonparental care while their parents work. Research indicates that children benefit from being with well-trained, consistent early care and education staff. Staff retention is crucial because frequent turnover impedes the formation of positive nurturing relationships between caregivers…

This brief is based on the 61-page report of the same name. This paper, commissioned by the Brookings Institution, studies the emergence of the mixed delivery model, in which pre-kindergarten is delivered in community-based settings and schools. It describes findings of a state survey CLASP conducted to understand the policy choices,…

San Diego is the first major city in the United States with comprehensive before and afterschool programs in every public elementary and middle school within its jurisdiction. This "6 to 6" program currently serves both elementary and middle school students in 204 public schools in the city of San Diego. With a strong public endorsement…

A growing number of community childcare programs are including children with developmental disabilities. While some studies have explored the effects of inclusion for preschool and school-age children without disabilities, there is little knowledge about inclusion for typically developing toddlers enrolled in such programs or about parent…

This report compiles standardized data on child care supply and requests for care in California. The report provides county and statewide information based on responses from about 42,000 child care providers and more than 55,000 parents over a 3-month period and on data from state and federal government agencies, including: (1) demographic…

"Data Trends" reports present summaries of research on mental health services for children and adolescents and their families. The article summarized in this "Data Trends" reports research that revealed mental health consultation has positive impact on teacher and center quality. Research has shown that parents of children,…