School-Age Children in Regulated Family Child Care Settings

摘要

Demand for school-age child care has risen during the past several decades, as more parents are working outside the home and need safe and supervised settings for their children to spend their nonschool hours. In recent years, attention has focused on how children's activities during out-of-school time can contribute to other positive outcomes, such as improved academic performance and avoidance of risky behaviors. Common school-age child care settings include school-based programs, extracurricular sports programs, and relative care. Less frequently discussed as an out-of-school time setting is family child care. Family child care is generally defined as care by a paid provider who cares for a small number of children in his or her home. Regulated family child care providers are licensed or registered with the state in which they operate. These providers fall into two categories: small family child care homes, defined as having one provider and a small number of children cared for in that providers home; and large family child care homes (or group homes), defined as having a provider and an assistant and a larger number of children cared for in the providers home.