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Using data from the National Child Care Survey, 1990 and its low-income supplement, this report examines the care arrangements of 12 million children under age 13 in 6 million families with annual incomes below $15,000. Three fundamental issues are explored: (1) how low-income children are regularly cared for; (2) how much low-income families spend on child care; and (3) the preferences of low-income parents in caring for their children.

This report addresses the large gap in our understanding of the employment patterns of mothers and the care of their children while they work. It presents new data on forms of care used for infants, toddlers, and school-age children, as well as previously unknown national data on how parents find programs, what alternatives are available, what child care arrangements cost, and how parents juggle employment and the care of their children.

The study was sponsored jointly by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the Head Start Bureau of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), Office of Human Development Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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