A new study shows that confidence is the most important factor for parents when choosing childcare services, with many slopes to home programs or relying on their families, friends and neighbors. But the researchers fear that there is no adequate support in place so that these systems flourish, the majority of legislation focused on the strengthening of daycares.
“I think it is not necessarily surprising, but a continuous question of importance is that there is a huge demand for care for infants and toddlers,” said Philip Fisher, director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. “We have historically segmented him with preschools and considered it a lower priority from an educational perspective. But from a family and economic well-being point of view, having adequate care is extremely important. ”
The Rapid Survey project, based at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, published a investigation In March, detailing what parents consider when looking for day care. Confidence was absolute priority, according to the study, followed by affordability, availability, location and hours.
The high esteem of confidence has led to greater dependence on friends, family and neighbors (FFN) for children's care – almost 40% of the 700 respondents relied on this network, 26% using unpaid FFN care and 13% using paying FFN care.
“We do not consider knowledge of the development of the child as the most important problem, we note that there are problems of convenience, confidence and level of comfort,” said Fisher. “Often parents will prefer to have home care or FFN rather than care at the center. In terms of policies, we must develop them to support all kinds of care and listen to parents to determine what their needs are and guide policies to meet demand.
The lack of investment in early childhood education – especially in the FFN network – is not new. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of childcare options when many programs forced to closeBut in the five years since the start of the health crisis, minimum changes have been made to federal policies to stimulate these options.
Natalie Renew, executive director at Home Grown, a national initiative focused on the creation of inclusive systems for home care services, said that the policies that were issued were largely focused on approved childcare services, with smaller home centers such as “reflection afterwards” and remaining FFN networks.
“It is often entirely excluded or it is a reflection afterwards, and this happens when it is one of the most widespread forms of childcare services and often used by families to meet their needs,” said Renew. “I think that complicates things when the big mamms and friends of trust are part of our childhood system. … Regulatory compliance and quality must be redesigned around this care population.”
There is also progress to be made in central options. THE continuously low salary For teachers and childcare providers, forcing them to get out of the industry, associated with the lack of stability, brought the education sector of early childhood to a boiling point, according to Fisher.
“The increase in precariousness … This is a problem; I see in the epidemic levels,” he said. “And this continues to be an important challenge for many families across the country. It refuses and flows somewhat, but it is never a level that we would consider to be acceptable. ”
The problem was still exacerbated by looking rural areasAccording to the report. Children's deserts have long been a concern. This lack of access is associated with an increase in costs for certain families, including a respondent to the Montana -based survey which said that “in a rural area, childcare is very difficult to find and the rates are not competitive because they do not have to be”. A family of Louisiana said they had led an hour twice a week for part -time care, with another parent from South Rural South Carolina declaring that it had to contact a daycare when it was six weeks pregnant, hanging the last place.
“If we had waited much longer, we would not have entered,” said the anonymous parent.
Beyond the obvious problems coming from a lack of child care – which is necessary for the safety of a child – Fisher recently published a study This has added the lack of constant care can negatively affect well-being for children and parents, resulting in depression, anxiety and stress.
Without large -scale intervention, Fisher said he thought the problem will get worse.
“The market is really in free fall and people have said that for a long time. It is unlikely that it will improve without third intervention,” he said.
He underlined smaller initiatives, including Oregon and Washington, DC, which stimulated the funding of early childhood care providers. Renew, pointing to similar state initiatives, said that it hesitated to say if the problem will improve or worse, adding that some of the proposed changes have aroused “unhappy winds” deregulation movementOr pushing for home centers that previously needed licenses to maintain fewer rules in order to be cheaper.
“Often, friends, families and neighbors come together in the deregulation movement,” said Renew. “We are not talking about a friend who lives at the corner who takes care of 15 children and has no license; It's illegal. These are grandmothers who take care of a child and perhaps a neighbor, which is perfectly legal. ”
But Fisher and Renew agree that the more must be carried out when fighting the FFN network.
“These (initiatives) greatly contribute to increasing supply and meeting demand,” said Fisher. “We see these things happening at the local level – we just have to see them at the national level.”
