According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1995 there were approximately 21 million infants, toddlers, and preschool children under the age of six in the US, more than 12.9 million of these children were in child care. Forty-five percent of children under age one were in child care on a regular basis. In 1994, three out of five women with children younger than six, and three-quarters of women with children ages six to 17, were in the labor force. In 1993, nearly two-thirds of all children under age 13 had both parents or their only parent in the labor force. The Census Bureau reports that in 1993, there were 9.9 million children under 5 who were in need of child care while their mothers were at work.
Child care is critical to worker productivity.
A lack of reliable care can cause workers to lose time and be less productive. One-third of poor women not in the labor force identified child care as a barrier to their participation in the workforce. One out of four young mothers was not working due to the lack of reasonable child care. The study examined centers in five cities and found centers in those cities located in states with more stringent standards were rated higher than centers in cities in states with the most lax set of regulations. In 1994, Families and Work Institute released its findings from the Study of Children in Family Child Care and Relative Care .