The paper analyzes how street-level bureaucrats construct and activate the intersectoral network induced by the implementation of the "Bolsa Família" Program (BFP) in a region of extreme poverty in Brazil. BFP is a federal cash transfer program with conditionalities, benefiting 13.8 million families. Based on the educational…

In this article, Ajay Chaudry and Heather Sandstrom review research on child care and early education for children under age three. They describe the array of early care and education arrangements families use for infants and toddlers; how these patterns have changed in recent decades; and differences by family socioeconomic status, race, and…

In the United States, public policy and expenditure intended to improve the prospects of children from low-income families have focused on better preparing children for school through Head Start and universal pre-K. This school readiness approach differs from the dominant model of public support for early care and learning in Northern Europe,…

Since January 1999, all parents in Norway with children aged 1 to 3 years who do not attend publicly subsidized day care are eligible for "cash-for-care" (CFC). One important purpose of the reform is to enable parents to spend more time with their children. We analyze whether the CFC reform has affected marital stability, using…

Describes study of administrative data from Northern Ireland on the costs of family and child care services, using small area utilization modeling, to derive a new set of needs indicators that could be used within the family and child care capitation funding formula. Argues that small area utilization modeling produces a fairer and more equitable…

The objective of the Family Support Services Scheme is to find new ways to prevent the breakdown of families and the institutionalization of children. The view taken in this report is that not much progress has been made toward achieving this goal. Criticisms of and recommendations for the scheme include the following: (1) The program attempts to…

This paper traces the history of the toy library, a facility or program created to loan toys to children, parents, child care providers, teachers, and play therapists. Types of toy lending libraries are the community toy library, the supplemental toy library, the cooperative neighborhood toy library, and the mobile toy library. The first toy…

This fact sheet outlines Sweden's policies of government-supported child care and parental insurance provisions. Swedish families receive: (1) free maternity and child health care; (2) child allowances for each child of 9,000 krona per year through age 16; (3) up to 450 days of paid parental leave for the birth of a child, with 360 days paid at 90…