ABSTRACT
It has been almost 10 years since the last major study of child care supply was published. This landmark field research, which consisted of two large multipart surveys (Ruopp, Travers, Glantz, & Coelen, 1979; Travers & Goodson, 1979) gave us “state-of-the-moment” knowledge about how much and what types of care were available and what components of care seemed most associated with good child outcomes. It even provided a glimpse into the netherworld of unlicensed family child care. The perfect companion piece to these studies of supply would have been a national demographic analysis of child care demand, but this research was never seriously contemplated, let alone implemented. The 1980 election of President Ronald Reagan cheerily closed the door on any federal consideration of child care issues. Child care advocates as well as researchers spent the years from 1981 to 1987 hunkering down and working as hard as ever for what victories were to be had in child care policy; just getting through a year without budget cuts or lowering of standards was an accomplishment.
