All material in Library Files is copyright. Currently across the United States and Canada, school-age child care is a patchwork of programs run by community groups, parents, school boards, associations, and recreation programs. Quality is as varied as the number of programs. Availability is also a problem resulting in a grave shortage of care options for children aged 5-12 or simply falling short of meeting the needs of children and their parents. There are an estimated 2 million children in the U.S. who look after themselves both before and after school.
Canadian children fair no better.
A good school-age program is designed to meet the developmental needs of older children. There should be access to community resources such as ice-skating, swimming, libraries, youth organizations and centres. Such programs require trained staff capable of working with large groups of independent-minded children as well as with the individual child. Here, like the shortage of programs themselves, recruiting and retaining qualified staff is an ongoing concern. While the majority of supervisors have an ECE diploma, a substantial number of caregivers possess little child care training specific to the needs of school-aged children.