Essay Example on School-Age Child Care: Quality Matters for Kids' Growth

Introduction

When bringing up children, it is crucial to ensure that they grow in a way that does not impede any crucial developmental aspect. Due to this critical requirement, parents always seek for child care facilities that provide the best services that match children's needs. As a broad topic, school-age child care has been there for long and offers alternative care to children since they cannot be at school or home always. Its quality is paramount, and a close reflection about the history, settings for such programs, children's need, and barriers facing the same help to understand the concept better.

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History of School-Age Care

Parents are not the sole provider of child care and often rely on other services that complement regular parenting. Although they are at the center of care, programs that help in parenting and fostering proper behaviors are plenty in Canada. Like others, these programs have grown gradually, and their history tells a lot about their foundation and progress over time. According to Prochner (2011), school-age care in Canada started in the mid-19th century, as part of early childhood care that began in the 1800s to offer care and instruct young children. Overall, before kindergartens and other programs developed, infant schools were the main structures. Having them paved the way for different types of school-age care that provides a wide range of children-related services.

Over time, school-age care has continued to change in various aspects. While they were generally more of social or community services in the past, some public responsibility is attached to them currently. According to Prochner (2011), programs for children above five-year-olds are more of civic duty, while those that take care of children less than five years being more of a private (family) responsibility. The other development that has taken place gradually is their regulation and improvement. They are more regulated today, unlike in the past, and supplemented with family resource programs to ensure that they can support parents as they work, train, or study, among other commitments.

Types of School-Age Care

In Canada, school-age care has many features of similar programs in other developed countries. Regulation is high, and quality is topnotch, irrespective of the type of facility. The first category of school-age care involves licensed home child care. Besides school-care, the licensed facilities may provide care to infants and toddlers, and many children from six months to five years are in such a program in Canada (Quarter et al., 2009). Regarding their benefits, licensed home child care is government-regulated, and usually places siblings together. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Education does not license individual home caregivers.

The other type of school-age care is by home childcare agencies. Closely monitored and screened by home visitors, a significant part of their work involves developing programs that help children meet different developmental needs as their growth stages necessitate. As Prochner (2011) further mentions, home child care agencies help children in play as they can identify toys and equipment suitable for children. Through advice from home visitors, home agencies come up with a nutritious meal planning for children. Their main advantage is guaranteeing safety, but they do not concentrate a lot on the educational needs of children.

The other type of facility offering school-age care is licensed child care centers. They do not concentrate on home-based care but extend their services to include nursery schools and before-and-after school programs. Operating in various locations such as community centers, religious institutions, and workplaces, these licensed centers care for school-age children but are also open to toddlers' and infants' care (Prochner, 2011). Due to the licensing element, the government regulates these centers; this is an advantage since quality is high due to regular inspection. Professionals also run them, but their services are more expensive compared to other school-age care programs.

Settings for School-Age Programs

When setting an environment for a school-age program, one looks at the purpose, safety, and facilities. Always, any early childhood program should be in a secure environment. Indeed, this is a cardinal requirement for such facilities. The overall condition for the childcare setting is to design it in a way that prioritizes health and infection control. Mostly, options for school-age settings have been the facilities that can provide education during out-of-school time. For instance, child and family-child care homes meet this critical requirement. Other settings include recreation centers and religious organizations/places of worship. With health, security, and accessibility highly guaranteed, these settings are the main areas where parents can get school-age care for children.

Indicators of Quality School-Age Programs (SACRERS)

Quality indicators vary, and safety supersedes the rest; programs must address the well-being of young children while putting adequate measures to control any hygiene and physical risks as well as unsafe practices. Safety is the baseline requirement before providing other quality components that ensure that a program meets the minimum licensing standards.

Social interaction is also a critical requirement since early experiences as a child grows often shape their development. Regarding that, school-age programs should provide a language-rich environment, foster independence, and allow children to engage in play and other social activities (Underwood, 2014). Furthermore, a child should grow up in an environment where there is no bullying, and respect and love are fundamental principles. Since the development of young children is multidimensional, a program that ensures that a child grows emotionally, physically, and socially without any challenge is the most ideal.

Family and Individual Diversity

When providing school-age care, the issue of diversity continues to challenge and improve programs as well. On one part, the fact that children come from different families (ethnic, social classes, and beliefs, among other factors) makes it possible for children to learn many values from their colleagues. Also, it is a catalyst for integration, which promotes a holistic approach to education in the country. On the other hand, individual diversity hampers integration and makes it a challenge for school-age caregivers to provide their services comfortably. According to Pratezina (2020), children remain social actors in a social context. This implies that they carry with them some values and beliefs which they practice in various settings. Regarding that, school-age programs need to initiate mechanisms that standardize processes and promote equality. Fortunately, this practice is widespread in many programs.

Children's Needs

School-age children are unique since they are highly active and exploring. Unless controlled, they are likely to harm themselves quickly, among other risks. Due to their highly aggressive and dynamic nature, they need environments that support physical activity at all times. Social and educational programs emphasize this requirement, which also plays an integral role in the physical development of children. In agreement with Underwood (2014), quality care programs should provide children with opportunities to develop language, physical, and cognitive abilities. This point implies that care for school-age children is not just about enrolling them in an early childhood program. It has to respond to their developmental needs at all times.

Children are adventurous and need peer-approval. School-age care programs must, therefore, promote satisfactory peer relationships. There should be policies, leadership, and staff that encourage inclusion (Underwoord, 2014). When children grow in places where integration is a value, they feel more accommodated, accepted, and loved; this supports their social development. Caregivers should further teach children how to engage in safe and appropriate play while doing it in supervised areas. Since this is common in many programs, it is right deducing that children have been getting the care that meets their basic needs.

Philosophy and School-Age Care

Philosophy is a theory to guide the principle of behavior. It is more of ideology when doing something. This approach is the same when it comes to school-age care since school-age care has an ideology that guides behavior. According to Halfon and Friendly (2013), early childhood care is centered on the spirit of inclusion. Children, whether disabled or not, and irrespective of their origins, should get the opportunity they deserve. Underwood (2014) echoes the same but goes further to mention that equitable access and lack of discrimination should be core values. This way, every child gets a chance to participate in school-age care.

Barriers to Inclusive Programs

Although inclusivity is highly emphasized in school-age care, it is challenging to achieve this objective. Among many issues, bias towards disabled children is among the barriers to inclusivity. As Halfon and Friendly (2013) further suggest, early childcare gets limited support on critical matters such as policy development and research. The limited support comes in the form of inadequate finances and human resources to carry out the programs and research about issues affecting young children. Doing so makes it difficult to understand children's problems and offer them the best as situations necessitate.

Advocacy

Safety is a sincere concern when handling children. Cases of abuse are widespread, and school-age children are highly vulnerable to maltreatment, albeit lacking information about their rights. Regarding that, children require people who speak on their behalf and to monitor them to ensure that they are safe at all times. All this entails advocacy. Regulation of programs is also essential; it is one way of enhancing safety like the way it happens through Alberta Day Care Regulation. Through such social, ethical, and legal interventions, children's rights cannot be abused. If it happens, there are adequate mechanisms to punish offenders, and this is how every program dealing with young children should operate.

Overall, school-age care should be comprehensive, and programs should be well informed about children's needs and respond to them as well. Besides this baseline requirement, it is vital to understand the underlying developmental needs and ensure that school-age care facilities promote children's growth. As discussed above, school-age care encounters different barriers, and the issue of inclusion continues to hamper its effectiveness. With gradual development taking place, there is hope that they will keep improving as time advances. All in all, Canada has a high score in school-age care, particularly in understanding children's needs and regulations of school-age care.

References

Halfon, S., & Friendly, M. (2013). Inclusion of Young Children with Disabilities in Regulated Child Care in Canada: A Snapshot: Research, Policy and Practice. Childcare Resource and Research Unit.

Pratezina, J. (2020). Early Years Education and Care in Canada: A Historical and Philosophical Overview-A Review. Journal of Childhood Studies, 45(1), 65-70. https://search.proquest.com/openview/12ed29ec18b5e2e2f97ae9c2e326c746/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=43226" https://doi.10.18357/jcs00019402

Prochner, L. (2011). Early Childhood Care and Education in Canada: Past, Present, and Future. UBC Press.

Quarter, J., Armstrong, A., & Mook, L. (2009). Understanding the social economy: A Canadian perspective. University of Tor...