TYPES OF PROGRAM

Not For Profit Programs :

There are public and private not-for-profit programs (someties called nonprofit)
that range in size and scope from the small cooperative preschool to the large,
complex, agency-sponsored child care center. Although not-for-profit and nonprofit may be differentiated for legal reasons in some states, in most places the
terms are interchangeably.
Individual Cooperative Programs :
Cooperative Programs, often called parent co-ops which are owned and operated
by a group. Parents are expected to help in the classroom, so the small co-ops
usually functions with one or two paid staff members, one of whom is usually a
teacher/ director. Costs are kept at a minimum and tuition is lower than in other
centers. Most co-ops are half-day programs because they require parent
participation; however, there are co-ops organized as child care centers.
Agency Sponsered Programs :
Many Not-for-profit early childhood education programs are sponsored by
community agencies such as church groups, labour unions, service agencies,
neighbourhood houses, and United Way organizations. These programs may be
set up as full-day care centers for working families or as half-day enrichment
programs. Such programs are found in both rural and urban areas and can serve
both low-income and middle-income families depending on how much support is
provided by the sponsoring agency. Agency-sponsored programs sometimes
receive partial support from a sponsor such as United Way and obtain the
remaining support from tuition, government funds, and grants.
Government-Sponsored Programs :
Head Start is perhaps the best known of the federal government-sponsored,
early childhood education programs and is the nations leading investment in
early childhood care and education programs and is the nations leading
investment in early childhood care and education. Head Start provides a range of
comprehensive education, health, nutrition, parent involvement, and family
support services and has primarily served at-risk children and their families since
1965. Head Start actually consists of two programs : Head Start and Early Head
Start. Head Start is a comprehensive early childhood development program
primarily serving at-risk preschool-age children and their families .
Head Start is administered by the Administration for Children and Families in the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Head Start funds are sometimes
distributed through and monitored by the local Community Action Agency.
Funding for Head Start programs may go to public school systems, universities,
and public or private not-for-profit agencies. Larger grantees such as public
schools or universities often find creative ways to partner with other agencies to
provide opportunities for more families to receive the benefits of this

comprehensive government-sponsored child care program. For example, a public

school may set up a partnership with a church child care program that serves a
number of low-income families. The church, in collaboration with the public
school, can offer Head Start income eligible families various health and social
service benefits with the help of a Head Start family advocate. The Head Start
funding also helps the church cover program expenses for these families. Many
unique collaborative arrangements are being worked out between and among
various types of child care agencies across the country, all in an effort to better
serve children and families.
Head Start programs may be center based or home based and may provide child
care on a full-time or half-time basis. Formerly for only preschool children. Early
Start, a part of Head Start, is now available to children under age 4. Those who
receive funds from Head Start are mandated to serve children with disabilities
who must be mainstreamed, and receive a total care package through direct
services from the grantee or from other resources in the community.
Public School-Sponsored Programs
Most states are funding some pre kindergarten programs and many of these are
in schools. Full-day or Half-day public school programs are staffed by people
hired through public school personnel offices and the programs are housed in
public school buildings, local school boards, public school administrators and
teacher unions typically have a voice in making policy as well as in teacher and
program evaluation. The building principal is the appointed instructional leader
and at the state level, these programs fall under jurisdiction of the
superintendent of public instrucyion or the commissioner of education.
Practices in public preschools still tend to focus on academic success, school
readiness and standardized testing but advocates for developmentally
appropriate practice in preschools are challenging this academic readiness
position of some public school instructional leaders. With the current trend
toward universal prekindergarten, additional government funds are flowing into
public schools to support the interest in offering a prekindergarten experience for
all children. The aim in some states is to increase the amount of state dollars
that come to those systems offering prekindergarten programs.
This could potentially lead to prekindergarten programs that focus on instruction
and dilute the caring dimension of the daily interactions between teachers and
children. Some states are making an effort to combine public and private
funding, which may be a way to have a system that allows for a combination of
education plus the caring and emotional support that young children require.
Before and after-school programs for school aged children often are housed in
public schools. Some are also public school-sponsored, while others are run by
community agencies or service groups such as the Salvation Army and YMCA.
The public school-sponsored programs may be staffed by teachers in the building
or by high school or college students who are free during early morning and late
afternoon hours. Often, the person in the school system responsible for the

preschool programs also overseas these before and after school programs and
other wrap around programs and the building principal is the on-site
administrator-in-charge.
Campus Child Care Programs
Laboratory schools and child care programs for children of students, faculty and
child care programs for children of students, faculty and staff are two types of
programs found on college campuses. The programs may be sponsored and
subsidized by the college or university or by government funds. These programs
often provide facilities for research, observation and teacher training. They may
be full-day or half-day and may charge full or in some cases partial, tuition for
those affiliated with the university. In some places where student groups as well
as the university itself offer support for the care of students children, the
students pay minimum tuition for their children and the program hours are
flexible to accommodate the students course schedules.
Privately Sponsored Not-for-Profit Programs
Many large industries, hospitals and apartments complexes are including child
care centers in their facilities and are offering services for the children of their
employees and residents. The hours are often flexible and in some cases, fees
are on a sliding scale to encourage full use of the available facilities. In the case
of hospital and industry operated programs, fees may be part of an employee
benefit package implemented through the use of vouchers, direct payment to
the caregivers or a child care allowance to the employee.
Some employers offer a Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP or
Dependent Care Reimbursement Program (DCRP) that allows emplyees to set
aside a certain amount of thei yearly pretax salary for child care expenses,
therby providing a substantial tax savings to the employee.
Employers are realizing employees child care needs on their own and are
reaching out to the child care community for help in managing on-site centers.
Some contract with centers for a reduced fee or funded slots for employees
whereas others prefer to contract for information and referral services in the area
but are not involved in service delivery.
Profit-Making Programs (Proprietary) :
Although much is written about not-for-profit programs such as Head Start,
United Way centers and public school programs, a large majority of the early
childhood education programs in the United States are proprietary. These
programs are set up to provide a service that will make a profit.
Independent Owner
Many full and half-day child care programs are owned and operated by an
individual or a small group. In the case of the proprietary center, tuition is usually
the only source of income and the operators frequently have budgeting and

financial problems, although some proprietary and nonprofits can obtain

supplementary funding from other sources including state funds. The proprietary
operators may be able to draw a salary from the tuition that is paid by families
using the service, but the operators rarely make a profit over and above that
because of the high cost of operating a quality program. Sometimes, proprietors
open more than one center in a community or reign and begin a small chain
operation. Although it is difficult to make a profit from the small chain, quantity
buying and shard service costs sometimes can reduce the cost per child and
increase the possibility of making a profit over and above operating expenses.
Corpoorate Systems :
Large child care chains are operated by a parent company that develops a
prototype and sets up a number of centers throughout a state or region or across
the nation and into Canada. Some of these corporations have gone public and
their stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. These national child care
chains operate under a central administration that furnishes the financial backing
and is usually very powerful in setting the policy and controlling the program.
There often is a prototype building and program that are publicized by
identifiable slogans, logos, brochure, and advertisements. Some corporate
systems operate all centers carrying the chain name, while others work on a
franchised basis .In the latter case, an individual purchases a franchise from the
parent company for a basic purchase price, then pays the company a percentage
of gross intake for the ongoing use of the name and the program. In addition, the
parent company supplies guidelines for fees, sample documents, brochures,
advertising materials and the like. Some of these sample documents must be
changed by center operators in order to meet local regulations and be in line
with the local practice. The parent corporation often monitors the franchised to
maintain the company standard of quality control. Since company policy often
controls the program, directors are usually expected to adopt the program as
outlined by the corporate body but also can adjust some practices based on their
own philosophy. A list of The Exchange Top 40 of Americas largest for-profit
centers is in Directors Resource.
Employee-Sponsored Programs
There is an increasing demand for employer- sponsored child care. Employers are
analyzing the benefits of child care services and seeking creative ways to meet
their employees' identified needs. During the 1990s, the top players among the
child care management organizations involved in employer-sponsored care were
Bright Horizons Family Solutions and Children's Discovery Centers/Knowledge
Beginnings, now Knowledge Learning Corporation. They accounted for the lion's
share of the phenomenal growth in the employer-sponsored care in that decade.
Much of their growth resulted from contracts to take over centers that employers
were previously managing on their own in addition to some acquisitions of other
independent child care providers. The employer-sponsored segment of the
market had grown two or three times faster than the overall child care supply
(Child Care Information Exchange/National Association of Child Care Resource

and Referral Agencies, 1998). However, that growth rate has sharply declined
since 2000. The concept of employer-sponsored care is not new. In the 1940s
during WWII, the Kaiser shipbuilder corporation on the West Coast provided care
for the children of women who were called into the workforce to support U.S.
troops in the war effort. Stride Rite and Levi Strauss also were pioneers in the onsite employer-sponsored child care business. The availability of child care
management corporations is relatively recent. According to a Bright Horizons
spokesperson, "Historically, the pharmaceutical, finance, insurance, and health
industries dominated the landscape of clients. Now a number of new industries
areinvolved, including retail, restaurants, and manufacturing. Also, there is an
increasing demand for more customized services for clients, such as backup care
and other creative services" Some of these additional services include backup
and sick child care, therapy services for children with special needs, crisis
intervention, and a number of extracurricular programs including karate,
gymnastics, music, and dance. Other creative ways to serve families is to offer
dry cleaning pickup, UPS pickup, gourmet meal pickup, and even haircuts for
children. In most cases, parents contract with these special service providers and
the center is the appointed location for deliveries and pickups.
When unemployment is low, growing numbers of employers begin to view child
care as a recruitment and retention tool. For example, hospitals sponsor on-site
centers to help with recruitment and retention of nurses and other technical
personnel. Although many employer-sponsored centers are run by the large
management organizations, there are employers who seek out public or private
groups such as universities or the YMCA to run centers for them. In some cases,
the employers provide generous subsidies by building new facilities that are rentfree or offering low-cost leases for ground on which to build. Employers who
strive to keep fees down for their employees, but value quality care and want
fully qualified staff as well as low teacher-to-child ratios, subsidize their centers
to make up the deficits.
When universities or other non-profits such as hospitals or YMCAs are called on
to manage centers far large for-profit corporations, it is important for the center
director to be prepared for many discussions with the corporate partners about
clarification of the mission and goals of the new program. Of course, families and
children always will be the focus of those who manage and staff the center.
However, it is important to keep in mind that recruitment, retention, employee
productivity, and morale are major goals of the corporation that subsidizes and
sponsors the center. Directors realize they have many customers. Including
families, children, and staff, but now directors must realize that one of the
important customers is the sponsoring corporation. When issues and questions
arise, the position of the corporate customer must be taken into consideration.
They may have questions about curriculum or hiring practices, but they are likely
to accept the decisions of the earlv childhood professionals whom they hired to
deal with those aspects of the program. For the director, this is no different from
handling the usual inquiries and concerns from parents in any type of center. But
decisions about hours of operation, changing schedules for children by the week
(or even the day), backup care, sick child care, late day or night care, and
weekend care are the things a business sponsor may need to keep employees

who work different schedules. They respect the early childhood professional and
value the beautiful classrooms and rich programming offered the children.
However, to meet the expectations the corporation has for its employees, the
center staff may have to reconsider what they view as best for the children and
adjust to the interests and schedules of their sponsor without compromising the
integrity of their own ethical and professional values.

Military Programs:
The Department of Defense (DOD) operates child care programs at military
installations across the country. Financed by a combination of government
appropriations and sliding scale parent tuition fees, the programs may he fullday, center based care; part-day preschools; drop-in care; and in some places,
evening and weekend care. Some of this is centre based and some is in familv
child care homes. Each of the military services operates its own child care
service, but all must follow the mandates of the Military Child Care Act of 1989.
The act addresses program funding, required training for staff, competitive pay
rates for staff, and an internal inspection system. To meet the demand for child
care services the DOD has expanded preschool and school-aged child care
options by increasing the number of programs on military installations. It
accomplished this by using existing resource and referral programs to help
families locate available child care and by contracting with off-installation
centers to guarantee spaces for DOD children.
Family Child Care Homes:
Family child care is reminiscent of an extended family, with a small group of
children being cared for in the home of a child care- provider. Although this type,
of child care service is most popular for infants and toddlers, these home
providers also care for pre-school children and offer before- and after-school care.
The provider may he an employee of a system but most often operates
independently, contracting directly with families who choose home care over
center-based
care.
These
providers
run
their
own
business. In some states, family child care homes must be licensed, whereas in
other places, they are certified or registered by a community authorized to pay
for children of low-income families who are in the home. Many providers join
employer or community agency information and referral registries that takes call
from parents seeking child care homes may or may not be subject to inspection
by a responsible community agency. In some places, inspections are made only
after a complaint has been filed.