Nonprofit programs: These are otherwise called as not-for-profit programmes. They may be public or private or private programmes. They vary in size and scope ranging from small cooperative preschool to the large, complex, agency sponsored child care center. The Nonprofit programmes include:
Individual cooperative programmes: Cooperative programs are otherwise called as parent cooperative programme. These are owned and operated by a group. Parents are expected to help in the classrooms. Hence these programs are small in size and function with the help of 1-2 paid staff members, mostly as teacher/ director. Costs are kept at a minimum and tuition fee is lower than in other centres. Most co-ops are half day programs because of parental participation in the program and are organized as child care centers.
Agency sponsored programmes: Many not-for profit early childhood education programs are sponsored by community agencies such as church groups, labour unions, service agencies, neighborhood houses.
These centers may be full day (working mothers) or half day programmes (enrichment programmes). These type of programmes 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 sponsored agency. Agency sponsored programmes receive partial support from a sponsor and obtain the remaining support from tuition, government funds and or grants.
Government programmes:
ICDS is the best known government sponsored early childhood education programmes.
ICDS is a comprehensive compensatory program that serves children of low income families.
It is a program intended to compensate for experiences the children from impoverished families may have missed.
ICDS also provides comprehensive health and social services to children and families.
The funds for ICDS are allocated by government from the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare.
ICDS is a center based and provides child care on a full time basis and serves children from 0-6 years age group.
Public school Sponsored Programmes: It is mandate that local school boards provide preschool programs. These programs are usually funded through local or state level or other public funds. 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 policy as well as in teacher and program evaluation. Practices in public schools still tend to focus on academic success, school readiness and standardized testing.
Campus child care programs: Laboratory schools and child care programs for children of students, faculty and staff are two types of programs that can be found on college campuses.
The programs may be sponsored and subsidized by the college or university or by government funds.
They provide facilities for research, observation, and teacher training.
They may be full day or half day.
May charge full or in some cases partial tuition fee for those affiliated with the university.
Privately sponsored Not for Profit Programmes: Many large industries, hospitals and apartment complexes are including child care centers in their facilities and are offering services for the children of their employees and residents.
They are set up for the comfort and convenience of the employees and residents.
The hoursare often flexible and fees are on sliding scale to encourage full use of 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 caregiver or a child care allowance to the employee.
Some employers offer DCAP (Dependent Care Assistance Programme) or DCRP (Dependent Care Reimbursement Programme) that benefit employees from tax payment.
Military programmes: The Department of Defense operates child care programmes at military installations across the country. Financed by government and parent tuition fee, programmes may be full day center based care, part day preschools, drop in care and evening and weekend care. Each of the military services operate its own child care service but all must follow the regulations in the Military Child Care Act of 1989. The act addresses programme functioning, required training for staff and internal inspection system.
Family Centered Care Homes: Family child care is reminiscent of an extended family where a small group of children is cared for in the home of a child care provider (Gordon & Brown, 2000). This type of child care service is most popular for infants and toddlers, but care for preschool children also and offer before and after school care. The director operates independently, contracting directly with families who choose home care over center based care.
Participants