Child care centers can be great institutions of learning and caring, if everyone pays attention to some important dimensions that also make them reasonable places to live. Children need a place where they have full use of their bodies and senses and enough freedom to take advantage of the variety of life, where they can find or invent the spaces…

Early childhood centers have become a common and necessary part of millions of Americans' lives. More women in the workforce, longer workweeks, and educational research supporting the importance of early education have all contributed to the rise of early childhood centers throughout the United States. Today, more than 30 percent of children under…

State child care policies can promote the quality and continuity of early childhood experiences and foster the healthy growth and development of babies and toddlers in all child care settings, especially if they are informed by research. The quality of the relationship between children and those who care for them influences every aspect of young…

Support for publicly funded pre-kindergarten has increased tremendously in recent years as parents, educators and policy makers have come to recognize the many benefits of high-quality early education. As of 2008, 38 states and the District of Columbia invest in pre-k programs, and many school districts are doing so on their own with local and…

As organizations implement novel health promotion programs across multiple sites, they face great challenges related to knowledge management. Staff social networks may be a useful medium for transferring program-related knowledge in multi-site implementation efforts. To study this potential, we focused on the role of extra-team connections (ties…

Childcare policies introduced in England in the last 10 years have created economic tensions within the sector. Having set the scene, this article presents an exploration of the different ways in which childcare providers approach operating their childcare businesses. Drawing on a case study of one Local Authority in England, the article presents…

Washington State has experienced a significant increase in the number of children entering licensed child care. In 2005, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) conducted a study of licensed child care, including both licensed home and facility care. The DSHS study concluded that the number of children in child care…

How does neighborhood poverty affect the poor's ability to access resources such as health care and job information? Most studies have focused on individuals or neighborhoods; we focus on organizations--specifically, whether organizations are less connected if located in poor neighborhoods. Our case study is childcare centers. We ask whether…

Childcare centers are business organizations and are subject to some of the same issues and problems as any small business. Many childcare administrators have little or no business training, and are unable to embrace change in order to help their programs survive economic problems. This article describes how one community saved their childcare…

Early learning standards are documents that outline expectations for preschool-age children's learning and development. Although states vary in what they call their standards, the documents all describe knowledge, skills, and/or characteristics expected of children before they enter kindergarten. In this article, the authors share what they…

There are days that the stress of administering a child care program outweighs the joys, unless the center director has good coping mechanisms. This article discusses how keeping a journal helps the author cope with the stress she is facing as a child care center director. The author defines a journal as a recorded account of the writer's…

Moving from a teaching position into an administration is not a smooth transition. The jobs are very different, with different tasks and responsibilities. When the author began directing, she had no idea what she was doing. It was her secretary, Dolores, who taught her how to do her job. In this article, the author reflects on her experiences when…

As part of Phase 3 of the Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS-3), Mathematica Policy Research worked with the First 5 LA Children and Families Commission and Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) to conduct a descriptive study of the characteristics of classrooms in LAUP programs during winter 2010. This study has a particular focus…

The author examines childcare preferences of African immigrant parents living in the United States. Based on interviews with eighteen parents with preschool-aged children and working within Bryman, Lewis-Beck, and Liao's (2004) narrative inquiry, the author demonstrates that although many of the African immigrants surveyed for the study preferred…

The idea that services can be provided for young children within their families in a seamless way that serves the interests of children and families simultaneously is problematic. A theoretical flaw underpinning the ideal of integrated services is that families are assumed to be homogenous units. This article explores competing goals for children…