Clint Andersen - Elgin Community College



Clint Andersen

Sarah Dye

Argument Paper

12/12/06

Child Care

Looking for a career that can give you immense satisfaction; child care maybe the career for you. The time you spend with young children, from birth to the age of five, is the most important time of there lives: The influences and education you give children will mold them and there minds for the rest of their lives. You can take part in molding our future, our children.

There are many career opportunities in child care ranging from; Baby-sitting to Health care. Baby-sitting, although not much of a career, is a way to make that extra dollar, and requires no formal education. Becoming a Nanny is a child care career giving you almost total responsibility for the children under your care. Working in a Childcare Center both Home Daycare and commercial centers gives you set working hours and gives you the ability to advance in both responsibilities and income. Education is the largest form of child care in the world. Education requires you to take several higher level courses. Health care professionals have the opportunity to show there compassion they have for children. Certain health care careers demand years of postgraduate training and education. If you have a desire for childcare and college is not for you, you should look into a Home Daycare career.

In the state of Illinois, the requirements to become a licensed Home Daycare provider are surprising simple. Required training to get the initial license is to take and pass a red-cross approved first add and CPR class, Plus complete the self study work books and corresponding test. Other requirements are that you and all other adults that will be caring for the children be fingerprinted so that a full background check is carried out by the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS). You must be in good health. Full medical physicals must be given to all care providers to verify they are in good health. After you get this paper work done the next step in getting a license is getting the home prepared under the guidelines that DCFS has provide. After you receive the license from the state you will then be required to do 15 hours of real time continuing education classes each year.

The on going necessity for both parents to work has continually gone up. In 1980 45.1 percent of all married women with children under 6 were employed outside there home, but by 1990 that number shifted to 58.9 percent. When you look at separated, divorced, and single mothers the numbers that work out side the home go up from estimates of 75 percent to 86 present. With the number of mothers working out side the home each year increasing, the need for additional childcare providers has also increased. Population density shows a direct link to the need for childcare. The greater the population density, the greater percentage both parents working outside the home is and the greater percentage of work single parents are. Therefor the higher the population density is, were you live, the greater the demand for childcare. With high demand the value of the service goes up. The closer a Home Daycare is to a population concentration the more you can charge. Rates for care as of 2000 begin at around $90 per week per child in the more rural areas, to more than $250 per week in the more manger cities. If you spend a little money on advertising, with in a couple of weeks you should have been able to get one or two full time kids. With in a year you may be able to get the maximum of eight children under contract and in your care. With eight children you will make between $720 and $2,000 per week depending on your location. It is not uncommon to charge parents for legal holidays even if you are not working. Take two weeks off each year and you will be making between $36,000 and $100,000 per year, not bad for someone without a college education. With a little extra paper work per day the state will even pay you for the snacks and meals you provide.

The pay may seam good to you, but the stress may not; problems communicating with parents on how to raise there kids, not every one has the same morals and values. Trying to combine the thoughts and needs of everyone can be very problematic. If you have your own kids in your home child daycare, they may feel left out or even feel unimportant to you as you spend the majority of your time with the other children. If you can get past the stresses chances are you will be in the business a long time. Most women retire in the late 60’s. Some women have chosen to stay in Home Daycare past eighty. Why? They get a sense of youth from all the children. “Nothing makes you feel younger than the sound of children laughing.”

The sound of laughter may be nice, but if you have been around those out of control kids in a restaurant or store you know how irritating a child can be. The thought of being around 8 children all daylong is more than I could ever handle. You may be that very special person that has the patients children need. If you are, a career in Home Childcare may be for you.

Melody Carlson

How to start a quality Childcare business in your home.

Thomas Nelson Publishers 1982

Marjorie Eberts/ Margaret Gisler

Careers in Child Care

VGM Career Books 2001

Alison Clarke-Stewart/ Virginia D. Allhusen

What we Know About Childcare

Harvard University Press 2005

Alison Clarke-Stewart

Daycare

Harvard University Press 1982

State of Illinois

Title 89: Social Services

DCFS 2003

State of Illinois

Abused and neglected Child Reporting act

DCFS 1975





Interview with Jill Andersen

Phone Interview with Heidi Blakely

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