The Care and Education of Young Children in the United States Child care and early education settings Center-based programs serve small and large groups of children. Center-based programs serve groups of children in specially designed facilities or designated space in schools, community centers, employer buildings, and other locations. Some programs provide care and education for a relatively small number of children while others serve up to several hundred children.
Some centers choose to serve children in a limited age group.
However, roughly half of the states exempt centers that operate only part-day from program regulation and nine states exempt centers operated by religious organizations. In 1999, state regulatory offices reported that there are a total of 102,458 regulated child care centers in the United States. The higher the level of maternal education and the higher the household income, the more likely the child will attend a center. Programs operated in the caregiver's home and serving a small group of children are referred to as family child care or family day care homes. Often a family child care provider has children of her own that are included in the group.