The Children's Bureau U.S. Department of Labor Washington, D.C. For release. BRIEF SUMMARY ON THE DAY CARE PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN OF WORKING MOTHERS IN 13 REPRESENTATIVE COMMUNITIES Thcs patriotism and. morale of America’s women war workers are high and. so is their concern for their childr|n’s welfare. For their children these women are asking good care and guidance while they themselves work to meet production quotas. And they are getting what they ask for in communities with well-rounded programs for the care of children of working mothers. But in other cities and towns lacking well-planned community-wide services, the children are not being properly safeguarded and as a consequence, many women workers are finding their efficiency. cut by worry .. over the weifare of their children and, many are failing to go to work or are withdrawing from employment. Production quotas suffer and,so does the welfare of children. The Child.ren’s Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor is the Government agency charged, with the task of studying problems that affect the well-being of the Nation's children. Cooperating with the Office of Community Uar Services and the U. S, Office of Education of the Feceral Security Agency, the Bureau has been concerned with helping communities solve the problems affecting children of women war -workers. Consequently .the d.ecision of the Children’s Bureau to make a quick surve of the services for children of working, mothers in 13 war-impacied areas was a logical outgrowth.,of a long-time interest on.the part-of the Bureau. The communities selected represent a cross-section of the country and include large and small industrial centers, rural and urban areas, and an area surrounding a military base. , . At the present time Federal funds are available.only for group-care centers. These communities, however, felt the need for foster-family day ca-and ;ad-visory and counseling services so strongly that they established them through the use of local resources only. In many instances the group-care centers in the,community were also supported by local funds. The survey covered facilities und.er the auspices of public welfare departments and social agencies, including advisory and,’counseling services, foster-family day-care programs, and group-care centers - nursery schools, day nurseries, and day-care centers. Projects under the Federal Works Agency and those sponsored, by school systems were not included. The 13 communities surveyed a wide range of services. They were Rochester and Monroe County, N. Y.* Newark, N. J.; Lynchburg, Va,; Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.; Bes Moines, I.owa» Minneapolis, Minn.; Memphis, Tenn.; Kansas City, Mo.; Little Rock, Ark.; Davis County, Utah; Portland and Multnomah, Oreg; and San Francisco, Calif. Questionnaires.were sent to the2 regional child-welfare consultants of the Children’s Bureau, who worked through the State welfare agencies in compiling the information on the local community. Although the community programs included in this survey varied in a great many details, all had felt the need for and worked out an organizational plan similar to the following: Under the auspices of the defense council, interested persons and agencies came ,together to form a child-care committee. This committee usually included a wide representation of people and agencies, such as the council of social agencies, the public welfare agency, schools, libraries, the health agency, the employment service, childreh’s organizations, churches parent-teacher associations, organized-labor groups, management, working mothers, business men’s and business women’s organizations, recreational agencies, service clubs. This over-all planning group conducted surveys to determine how many working mothers had children, how many of these children needed care, what resources were in the community for meeting the need, what were the gaps in the services already available, and what additional services were needed by working mothers. Representative child-care committees have been organized on the State as wen as on the local level. In many States the State departments of welfare and education agencies are represented on the State child-care committee. Often they work together on standards and the interpretation of programs. By October lnU3, there were 27 State committees organized to help communities meet the needs of children of working mothers- The development of local child-care committees was stimulated by the State child-care committee in communities in which the impact of war was acute. The number of such local committees in a State was dependent upon the urgency of the manpower problem. For instance, New Jersey, a highly industrialized State, reports 175 community child-care committees while Wisconsin, largely a rural State, has but 15. Often the community child-care committee would delegate the responsibility for certain phases of the program to a subcommittee. For example, in Lynchburg, Va., a subcommittee was responsible for setting up the advisory and counseling service. In Portland a special subcommittee worked on provisions for the care of the sick child of the working mother. Once the kinds of services needed were determined, the child-care committee sought the sponsorship of a community welfare or social agency or the school in planning for the appropriate service. The actual operation of thi service then became kthe responsibilitytof the sponsoring agency working usually in cooperation with the appropriate State agency. The 13 communities surveyed had a well-rounded day-care program, usually including counseling, foster-family day-care, and group-care services Whenever the Children’s Bureau had other information which threw light on any of the phrases of this survey it has been used and integrated with the survey material.3 COMMUNITY-WIDE ADVISORY AND COUNSELING SERVICE An advisory and counseling service has a vital part to play in the community day-care program-. 'On the one hand, it is used to assist mothers who Kare planning to enter employment or vho are already employed, in thinking through the many problems relating to the ’-’ell-being of their children and the maintenance of their family life. Here mothers receive information and help in locating the type of care needed for their children, as veil as help vith any special problemsr that might be troubling them or that might arise from time to time in relation to plans for their children. On the other hand, an advisory and counseling service is used by the community in keeping constantly abreast of the need. Such services have proved to be one of the best ’-’ays of determining the location of group-care centers, the number and location of the foster-family day-care homes, and the need for homemaker services in 'the community. In other ’-’orfts, an advisory and. counseling service is an effective means for mobilizing all the resources in the community to meet the need for the care of children of vorking mothers. Tvelve communities sent in reports to the Children’s Bureau' in which an advisory and counseling service vas described. They ’’rere; Rochester and Monroe County, N.Y.; Newark, N.J.; Lynchburg, Va.; Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.; Des Moines, Iova; Minneapolis, Minn.; Memphis, Tenn.; Kansas City, Mo. Little Rock, Ark.; Salt Lake City and Davis County, Utah; Portland and Multnomah County, Oreg. These communities set'up community-vide advisory and counseling service despite the fact that there vere no Eederal funds available for them. The need for such services vas so clear and so strongly felt that they vere provided for from community resources. Unfortunately the vast majority of American communities do not have resources for doing this.. The advisory and counseling service vas financed in a variety of ^ays. In Rochester and Monroe-County, N.Y., the county made an appropriation. In Davis County, Utah, trained workers vere paid for out of the State public velfare fund. In Des Moines, I ova, and Kansas City, Mo., the community fund offered financial assistance. In many communities trained staff vere loaned by ’-elfare and social agencies. The fact that funds and personnel vere obtained in these vays vas at once the greatest strength and the greatest ’-eakness of the advisory and counseling service. Because the service grev out of a videspread community need, it had community endorsement and use. In many cases, however, the use of loaned staff from a number of agencies in the community at different times, interfered vith the continuity .and consistency of the service. '1 ' advisory and counseling service va.s manned by competent people in all communities. In spite of the great shortage of workers capable of staffing such a service, every community in one vay or another succeeded in obtaining personnel with both training and experience in family and child, velfare services.4 The majority of the counselors -were graduates of schools of social work end he'd'had some experience in a social agency. In most communities the expedient resorted to was the outright borrowing from an established social agency*. For.example, in Rochester the department of public welfare lent a worker to administer the program. A number of .private agencies furnished personnel-in Chicago, In Cleveland the Institute of Family Service made workers available, ......... Volunteers who .worked under the direction of professional,people were ■ nSQd i*1 various aspects .of the-service, .Rochester and, Kansas City used them in recruiting foster-family day-care, homes. In Des koines volunteers were used to secure information from other agencies and to get in touch with individuals who had.applied for . service but had not followed up on their- applications. , The advisory and counseling:service was widely used by working mothers, by the community, -and by industry* The extent of use by mothers can be gauged only roughly but the data that are available .-indicate wide use< Cleveland had 229 requests for service in the month of .July 19^3* Cf these, 203 were new and 26 came from women who had previously asked for, help* During the 6 previous months Cleveland had an average of 300 requests per month. >- ... . The District-of Columbia received 100 requestg .a week for advisory and counseling services. In Portland, 175 requests were received.during July 19^3* I , /.■' '. ' '■ Other interested persons and agencies within these communities made use of the advisory and counseling services. Memphis reported that during •^he first 6 weeks the service was; available 56. individuals came to offer •to ca.rc for-children of working mothers in their homes, 5 wanted to help organize group-care facilities, 22 .requested employment in established facilities, .and 1-offered transportation for children to and from centers. In Memphis the advisory and counseling service reported consultations ."with such community 'organizations''.as the U.' S. 'Employment Scrvf.ee, the American Red Cross, the Memphis Welfare Commission,, the Y.W.C.A., the Federation of. Jewish Welfare Agencies, St. Peter's Orphanage,' the Wesley Institute, the Memphis Children's 3ureau,, and others. In Davis County, Utah, the Federal Public Housing Authority employed special project supervisors over all public housing in Davis County and in the management office of each project, a woman employee to whom tenants went with various problems. The community -advisory and counseling service worked closely with these individuals on a. number of problems, : Other communities reported use of the advisory and counseling service by industry. For example, in Portland the industrial counselors in plants' come to the community advisory and counseling services, to discuss the problems of mothers who had notified them of an intention, to leave work because they were unable to find adequate care for their children.5 Advisory and counseling service was usually located in sone central, convenient place in order to insure its use,In *es koines and Portland the advisory and counseling service ..’-’as available in the U. S. Employment Service offices as ^ell as in branch offices set u$ for the purpose. The Office of Civilian Defense.and the Office of Community War Services were.used in several communities. ; ' ■■ " Davis County, Utah, considered its advisory and counseling service handicapped by its inconvenient location. The' service was housed in the County Court House. However, the county seat is located midway between the two largest cities in the State where the” greatest need for services was found. ‘"Plans to hold office hours in each area had not been worked out because of the difficulty of finding office space. In sone communities the advisory and'counseling'service was located in the office of a social agency. In a number of instances the practice was considered undesirable because it associated the service with a specific agency Mothers brought a great variety of problems to the advisory and counseling service. The following problems are fairly typical: A mother came to the advisory and.* counseling service in the community in an effort to locate a housekeeper. She had seven children, 8 months, 3> 5» 8, 10, 13, and lk years, of age. The children we'TC.'staying alone while both parents^worked on the -J-fro dl 'p.m. shift. Another mother had 3 children, 3» S, and 9 years of age, and she worked every night from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., leaving her children alone. She said ” I have got to ^ork to. make my children a living and I haven't got nobody to stay with them. I have, .to leave them by themselves. I tried to get someone but I failed. I would sur-e appreciate it if I could get someone.”- A mother who was separated from her husband and ’-’ho needed to work to support 'her t’-o children, age 2 and IP years, came to the advisory and counseling'service for help .in finding care for her children. Arrangements were made for the older child to attend an after-school center in the neighborhood-. Because there ’-’ere no nursery-schools in?the area, the younger child was placed in a'foster family day-care home. Many kinds of services were included Under the advisory and counseling service. In all the communities primary emphasis ’was placed on helping .-mothers to make good plans for their children. ..Pin..11 ef-the 12 "‘communities, mothers. were--given-• infor^'At'idn concerning the. facilities- available and "then referred to the- appropTinte day-care service. Certain types f special problems were referred.to ar. appropriate social'agency. In Cleveland, Kansas • m City, Newark, ’Memphis, and Davis County/'Utah, the advisory and counseling 1 service referred the mother to an upprgpriate community day-care facility .or to other social agencies which could offer :.her, a, plan, best -suited to"'her needs. * In.Des Moines the advisory and counseling service acts as an intake service for cay-care centers, 6 In many communities the.advisory and counseling service was a means for-keeping the community informed, as ‘to the need.'for* child care, the gaps in the services, and desirable locations for group-care centers. For example, in Cleveland, Detroit, and the District of Columbia need was determined largely in terms of the requests made by parents to be advisory and counseling service. TThen a nucleus of need appeared in a given neighborhood the appropriate service was developed. The advisory and counseling service functioned as a clearing house for problems relating to working mothers .-’ith both management and labor. In Cleveland employers used the advisory and counseling service freely. In some instances counselors helped individual parents ’•’ork out the matter of shifts and hours with individual employers. In Portland the•supervision of the com»-muni'ty advisory and counseling service is chairman of a group of industrial counselors. Industry is given information regarding the services of social agencies, and social agencies see the problems .of working mothers from the point of view of industry. The report fhom Portland and Multnomah County states 11 The close working relationship of the industrial counselors and the counselors who advise with mothers regarding community facilities and on family matters should facilitate both the proper care of children and increased production.” In some communities the advisory and counseling service has assumed the responsibility of recruiting foster-family day-care homes. This was true in Little Pock, Kansas City, &nd>Portland. Communities reporting capacity or near-capacity attendance in their group-care centers were the communities'which had a ^e11-organized, community- wide advisory and counseling service. This was true in Cleveland, Rochester, and the District of Columbia. There may be several explanations for this relationship. -Communities with good advisory and counseling services were acutely conscious of the necessity for a wide range of services because they looked at the problem of providing care for children through the eyes, of.the working mohter. They soon discovered that no one type of care would meet the gamut of needs brought to the service by the mothers. Consequently a wide range of services was set up and those available were used more efficiently. Where there was a good advisory and counseling service, group-care centers were located in neighborhoods where evidence of need '•■as shown in terms of requests for care. The centers ’-'ere tied in more closely ^ith the areas of need. This also made for better attendance. Communities ’wLth a good advisory and counseling service rrere better able to adjust the day-care services to the needs of individual children. This re- sulted in mothers making good plans for their children—plans ,-rhich they were able to abide by. Better planning on the part of mothers made for better use ' of all types of day-care facilities and for'less absenteeism in industry. Advisory and counseling service also made for flexibility in community day- care planning. Facilities, the needs of children, the problems of working mothers could all be geared in together. This resulted in a well-coordinated community attack on the problem of providing care for children of working mothers.7 FOSTER-FAMILY DAY CAKE The foster-family day-care program in the communities reporting to the Children’s Bureau provided for the placement and supervision of children of working mothers in carefully selected homes, preferably in the children’s own neighborhoods. The following communities sent in reports of their foster-home day-care program: Chicago, Ill.; Cleveland, Ohio; Les Moines, Iowa; District of Columbia; Kansas City, Mo.; Memphis, Tenn.; Minneapolis, Minn.’; Portland and Multnomah County, Oreg.; Rochester and Monroe County, H.Y.; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco, Calif. Usually the State welfare agency licensed and supervised the fosterfamily day-care home. In some instances, however, this responsibility was assigned to the local, agency sponsoring the program. Supervisory ...visits to foster-family day-care homes were made at regular intervals in order to safeguard the- welfare of the children. Many of these communities .recognized the need for more supervision of the foster-family day-care ■ homes-than they were, able to give with the limited staff and funds avail- able. The number of children being placed independently by mothers in homes of neighbors and friends shows the great need for developing and -extending the foster-family day-care program. A In all these communities a close relationship was maintained’between the advisory-and counseling service and the foster-family day-care • program. In some communities both programs were administered by the same individual. Even where the foster-family day-care program was .sponsored by a-^ocal child-placing agency close relati.onahip was characteristic. Usually .both services.were provided.. The administering agency was responsible for making preventive and corrective health resources available, either directly or through community sources such as the public-health agencies, ' • ' Although there were no Federal funds available for the'program., just as in the case cf.' the advisory and counseling services; local: -' • communities felt the need for the program so keenly that' they went . ahead and set up the service with their own resources. This lack of .funds, however^,, in many cases limited both thq...scope. and the quality of the program. . , . - , ., The foster-family day-care program in those communities proved suitable for children of all ages. ;It was found particularly appropriate for children under 2 yeans, for#children who because of some special problem did not fit into group care, for physically handicapped children, for children who lived in suburban or sparsely settled areas, and for children,who needed service at unusual hours.; . ■ •Pkp vast majority of children of working mothers are now receiving some form of home? care. In -Los Angeles a survey of 4,195 mothers employed in six large.aircraft plants showed that of 2,482 children under 5 years of age—g 52 percent were receiving care in their own homes by a grand.-• mother, aunt, other relative, or hired help; 4g percent were receiving care outside their own homes. Of these lg percent were being cared for through'independent arrangements made with homes in the neighborhood or with homes of relatives; 12 percent were being cared for in boarding homes; lg percent were receiving group care in nursery schools and day-care centers. Actually the clientele of a foster-home day-care program, if adequate safeguards for children are to be insured, should include many mothers who are now making independent arrangements. Wider use of approved foster homes involves interpreting the program and the needs of children to working mothers and supplying approved foster-family day-care homes through a well—coordinated program. A foster-family day-care program is flexible and can be gauged to the extent of need. In communities where there was a limited amount of employment of mothers—for example, Davis County, Utah—a small but well-organized program functioned. Only 12 out of a total of 20 approved homes and 15 children were involved. Other communities needed many foster-family day-care homes. For example, Cleveland, Ohio, reported 229 approved homes, of which 65 were caring for 111 children. In Minneapolis, Minn., U75 foster homes supplied day care to 720 children. The lack of available funds forced aommunities to resort to many methods of obtaining the personnel necessary to man the program. In Memphis the program was administered by the Memphis Children’s Bureau, a private foster-care agency, which volunteered to assume responsibility for this part of the day-care program. In Chicago a number of private agencies with a foster-home program developed a foster-family day-care program as a supplement to their regular services. In three communities the program was set up under the child-care committee of the defense council: Rochester and Monroe County, M. Y., Cleveland, Ohio, and Kansas City, Mo. In all these communities personnel was lent by various social agencies. Day care was usually interpreted as care between 6 a.m. and 7 P»m. Occasionally a foster mother received a child as early as 5;3O a.m. and in some instances school children stayed on into the evening. Actually the hours varied widely, although the 6 a.m. to 7 P»m. range took in the hours when care was wanted by most mothers. A wide range of fees was charged. The fees charged for fosterfamily day care ranged between $4.50 and$10 a week; they averaged $1 a day for each child. Usually fees were arranged directly between the mother and the foster mother. Occasionally an agency sponsoring the9 service established, a fee schedule, although payment was direct. In these cases homes were not approved where charges were made in excess of the schedule. Children from birth to l6 years were being cared for in the foster- family day-care program. The following groups of children were being cared for in these communities: Babies under 2 years of age. Children with special problems that make group care undesirable. Children who live in suburban or rural communities from which industry draws employees but which do not have sufficient children to warrant group care. Children of various ages in the same family whom the mother wishes to keep together. Children whose mothers wish to keep them in their neighborhood environment, for whom group care near home was not available. In the District of Columbia 35 percent of the requests for foster-family day care ’were for children under 2 years of age. Seattle, Wash., reported that the number of requests for foster-family day care averaged about 30 a week. About one-half of these were for children under 2 years of age and the other half for children over 2 who either did not fit into group care or for whom no group care was available. Competent people were used in the program in all communities. Where the program was set up under the local child-care committee the same individual administered the advisory and counseling service. Usually this person had training in social work and experience in child placement. In other communities a child-placing agency was responsible for the program. Volunteers under the direction of professional staff were used to find homes in Los Angeles and Kansas City. Standards for the approval of homes for foster-family day care are much alike in all States. The standards given here are among the major ones required by the Washington State Department of Social Security and are fairly typical. The number and ages of the children who can be cared for in a home depend upon the facilities and space in the home, the skill of the foster mother in dealing with children of different ages, and the amount of time she and other adults in the household can give to the children. In order that the child may receive the individual care necessary to his growth, development, and adjustment, it is desirable that the number of children in the day-care home be limited to six, of which no more than two under 2 years of age shall be under the supervision of one adult. aThe day-care home is not a substitute for the parental home, hut only supplements it„- T^-e.-.fo'^ter,. mother should, plan -cooperatively with the child’s,; pwh-;fa^i