Leading the Way

Another new curriculum manual is Kids' Time: A School­ Age Care Program Guide, which grew out of discussions at a national conference on Block Grant funding about the lack of materials on school-age childcare, an expanding field for latchkey youngsters. Other widely-recognized materials include Just Kids: A Practical Guide for Working with Children Prenatally Substance-Exposed, Preparing for Mass Disasters, and A Guide for Training and Recruiting Child Care Providers to Serve Young Children with Disabilities.

Reducing Exceptional Stress and Trauma, a curriculum guide and training manual on coping with violence in every­ day life, is scheduled for publication this year.

The benefits of this venerable childcare system are embedded in the experiences of the millions of children and families whose lives have been enriched by childcare. Here are some the consequences it continues to bestow:

• Fully-employed parents, because childcare was available during job training;
• Self-sufficient families, because their childcare was subsidized when their wages were low; and
• Children who succeed in school, because childcare pro­grams aided their development.