ABSTRACT
The historical pattern for writing about early childhood education has been for authors to write about child care programs supported by the Federal government prior to and during the 1930s and 1940s, then to jump forward to the 1960s with the advent of the Head Start program, thereby ignoring events in the postwar period and the 1950s. Reasons for this gap are due in part to the growth of early care and education programs within silos and a determined reluctance among early care and education professionals to advocate on behalf of both working mothers and children. Research shows that information on the status of child care during the 1950s is available from public and private sources and emphasizes specific policies (see Table 6.3) made during the Eisenhower administrations (1953–1961). The influence from the 1950s has continued; references to examples in those decades are presented in this chapter, especially Table 6.3. 1950s Policy Influences on Early Care and Education in Succeeding Presidential Administrations https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
President
Dates
Tangible Policies /U.S. Law: Number & Name
Symbolic Policies/Issues Addressed & Comments
Harry S Truman 1945–1953
1950
Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth: “how to help children develop the mental, emotional, and spiritual qualities essential to individual happiness and responsible citizenship.”
Winter 1951
Office of Education/Children’s Bureau published Background Information on Day Care and Extended School Services for Children of Working Mothers
U.S. Department of Labor/Women’s Bureau published Women as Workers: Statistical Guide
1952
Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau (WB), Women Workers and their Dependents (Bulletin #239).
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953–1961
April 11,1953
Creation of Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW) under Reorganization Plan I of 1953 (Eisenhower, 1953, p. 94).
April 16, 1953
“The Chance for Peace”: American Society of Newspaper Editors. Speaking against the Soviet threat to the free world: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children” (Eisenhower, 1953, p. 50).
Summer 1953
U.S. Department of Labor/Women’s Bureau-M.E. Pidgeon published Employed Mothers and Child Care (Bulletin #246).
July 23,1953
Letter to the Chairman, Senate Appropriations Committee, on the Mutual Security Program:”… I place great value on the work of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, with its cooperative approach by many nations in the interest of children of many areas of the world…which brings to the people of the underdeveloped areas concrete evidence that the United Nations is actively assisting their quest for economic progress” (Eisenhower, 1953, p. 143).
1954
Public Law/P.L. 83–591, Internal Revenue Code (IRS) Section 214 allows tax deductions for selected child care expenses.
January 21,1954
Annual Budget Message to the Congress: FY 1955:”I recommend immediate enactment of the authorizing legislation and appropriations so that preparations for the individual State [education] conferences as well as the national conference can begin at once” (Eisenhower, 1954, p. 14 (153)).
Nov. 28,1955
White House Conference on Education, Washington, DC:The number of school-age children outnumber the teachers and facilities available. “So, we come to the heart of this whole problem. We want good facilities on the one hand, and we know that there are many areas in which people cannot afford to build schools…. So we want a solution that is good for all, and all of us want to help in the proper way” (Eisenhower, 1955, p. 242).
1956
P.L. 84–752, funded milk for all non-profit programs
1957
U.S. Office of Education-Hazel Gabbard published Trends in Programs for Young Children in Journal for Nursery Education, Vol. 13, No. 3, Spring,
1957, pp. 8–13.
1958
P.L. 85–864, National Defense Education Act
Sen. Jacob Javits (D-NY) introduced S.4967: DHEW to make grants up to $25 million to improve facilities and services for children needing day care outside their homes.
U.S. Department of Labor/Women’s Bureau published Handbook on Women Workers (Bulletin #261).
1959
U.S. Department of Labor/Women’s Bureau published Child Care Arrangements of Full-Time Working Mothers. This provided background information for the 1960 White House Conference.
Spring 1960
The Golden Anniversary White House Conference on Children and Youth addressed “the unmet needs of children of working mothers.”
Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, E. Herzog, Children of Working Mothers (Bulletin #382).
Fall 1960
National Conference on Day Care for Children co-sponsored by the Department of Labor/Women’s Bureau and DHEW/Children’s Bureau. The purpose of the conference was “to encourage development of day care services for children who need them—to find where more emphasis is needed—to find how services can be best developed to strengthen family life—and finally to encourage citizens and local, state and national organizations to play a more important part in day care projects and contribute to their establishment and operation” (NANE Journal, pp. 33—35).
John F. Kennedy 1961–1963
1962
P.L. 87–543, Title IV-A of the Social Security Act (AFDC) amendment provides assistance to mothers on welfare who are working or in job training.
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare/Children’s Bureau (CB), Working Mothers and Day Care Services.
Lyndon Johnson 1963–1965
1964
P.L. 88—452, Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 includes plans for a 6-week demonstration program of comprehensive services to preschool children of low-income families. Becomes a full-time program and moves from OEO to DHEW.
1965
P.L. 89—10, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Lyndon Johnson 1965–1969
1966
Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) and National School Lunch Act of 1946 (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) include eligible child care centers.
1967
ERIC Clearinghouse established.
Community Coordinated Child Care (4C) programs begin and become nation-wide.
1967
P.L. 90—222, Economic Opportunity amendment authorized drafting the Federal Interagency Day Care Regulations (Code of the Federal Register-34 CFR 1390), 1–29–69. Never implemented & deleted 2–22–1982.
Richard Nixon 1969–1973
1969
Office of Child Development (OCD) created in DHEW.
1970
P.L. 83–591 (1954) Deductions increased 1975
White House Conference on Children endorsed the Comprehensive Child Development Act (S.2007).
1971
DHEW created the Child Development Associate (CDC) credential, first awarded in 1975.
President Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development bill because it would promote “communal approaches to child rearing over family-centered approaches.”*
* “Many early educators have criticized, condemned, and castigated President] Nixon for vetoing S.2007; in no record that I have read has it been noted that this episode was as much a demonstration of political gamesmanship as a critical commentary on early education. In 1969, Nixon submitted his Family Assistance Plan which contained provision for child care for welfare women who had to work in order to receive assistance. Child care as an aid to the poor who can’t do better is an acceptable early education program. Congress condemned the FAP to an arsenal of delay tactics and by the end of 1970, a year before S.2007, the FAP was a dead issue in Congress (CQA, 1970, p. 1030). To have signed into law a year later a bill that would go far beyond his own recommendation for child care, both fiscally and philosophically, is expecting too much from the best of political expediencies” (Ranck, 1981, p. 27).
1972
DHEW/OCD established a School-Age Day Care Task Force with reps from DHEW and Department of Labor.
Richard Nixon 1973–1974
1974
P.L. 93–647, Title XX amendment to Social Services Act allows funds to be used for child care. Becomes the Social Services Block Grant in 1981.
P.L. 93–247, Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment enacted.
Gerald Ford 1974–1977
1975
P.L. 83–591 (1954) [Deductions increased 1975]
P.L. 94–142, Education for all Handicapped Children Act enacted (becomes the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -IDEA)
1976
Dependent Care Tax Credit defines child care as an employment expense that benefits all families.
Jimmy Carter 1977–1981
P.L. 96–88 (1979), DHEW becomes the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Ronald Reagan 1981–1985
1981
Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) replaces the Title XX funding stream and gradually decreases.
1984
P.L. 98–558, Human Services Reauthorization Act created the Dependent Care Development Grant for child care resource and referral, school-age programs, and special needs child care.
Ronald Reagan 1985–1989
1986
P.L. 99–401, Temporary Child Care for Handicapped Children and Crisis Nurseries enacted.
P.L. 99–425, Human Services Reauthorization Act amendment creates scholarships for CDA credential.
1987
P.L. 100–203, National Commission on Children created
ABC, the Act for Better Child Care bill (S.1885/H.R.3660), and over 100 other child care-related bills introduced in 101st Congress.
Family Support Act offers entitlement for eligible child care for parents in mandatory work and training programs and a year of transitional child care for parents leaving welfare for work.
1988
Even Start, a two-generational literacy program, created in U.S. Department of Education.
Geo.H.W. Bush 1989–1993
1989
P.L. 101–189, Military Child Care Act created a model child care program.
The Education Summit adopts six goals, the first of which is that all children will start school “ready to learn.”
1990
P.L. 101–508, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act/Child Care and Development Block Grant is the first U.S. law that provided specifically for child care support. Title IV of the Social Security Act included JOBS/ Transitional Child Care and At-Risk Child Care.
1991
Beyond Rhetoric: A New American Agenda for Children and Families, the report of the National Commission on Children, published.
1992
Child Care Aware, a national toll-free number to help parents find child care in their communities is launched.
Bill Clinton 1993–1997
1996
P.L. 104–193, Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRAWOA) enacted with a requirement to spend 4% of the funds to “provide comprehensive consumer education to parents, increased parent choice, and improve the quality and availability of child care.”
Secretary Donna E. Shalala created Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion.
The Corporation for National Service included a set-aside for AmeriCorps CARE and Action for Children.
Secretary Donna E. Shalala created the Child Care Bureau in DHHS.
Reauthorization of Head Start established the National Head Start Fellowships Program.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) published a report on the effect of child care on children.
Bill Clinton 1997–2001
October 1997
President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sponsored a White House Conference on Child Care and announced a child care initiative for $21.7 billion over five years.
2000
National Academy of Science committee published From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development.
2001
National Academy of Science committee published Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers.
A bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Child Care is established.
Geo. W. Bush 2005–2009
P.L. 107–110
The Act to Leave No Child Behind is introduced by Sen. Christopher Dodd (S.940) and Rep. George Miller (H.R. 1990).
Barack Obama
2009–2012
2009
P.L. 111–5 February 13American Recovery & Reinvestment Act
2011
Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grants administered by the Office of Early Learning (November 4)
2012
“Blueprint” to update the NCLB Act (March 15)
2012
National Academy of Science anniversary committee published From Neurons to Neighborhoods: An Update.
