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Topic Editor: John Bennett, M.Ed., PhD, OECD, France
Topic founded by: Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation
Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has become the norm in many European and North American countries, where most children of 3 years and upwards attend a regulated early education service. In addition, early childhood services represent much more than a drop-off location for working parents, but play an important role in child development by giving children an opportunity to engage in a range of educational and social activities. The increasing number of children in formal ECEC is largely attributed, on the one hand, to the convergence of research showing the positive influence of early education on school readiness and, on the other, to the rise in maternal employment, although even children of stay-at-home mothers are likely to attend some type of child care. In the U.S., for example, the majority (63%) of women with children under 3 years spend time in the labour force and their children experience considerable amounts of non-maternal care.
Despite the increasing take-up of early development services, their quality is frequently low because of the costs associated with maintaining quality. High quality is characterized by a qualified, well-paid and stable staff, low adult-child ratios, and efficient management. Research suggests, however, that much formal child care in the United States is of weak quality and is associated with some modest but long-term developmental risks, especially when very young children (below the age of 18 months or so) spend long hours in such services. Adverse outcomes are not merely by-products of low-quality child care but stem also from stress caused by separation, which suggests that parental leaves should be extended to one year, which is the increasing practice in European countries.
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