day-care centre

day-care centre, institution that provides supervision and care of infants and young children during the daytime, particularly so that their parents can hold jobs. Such institutions appeared in France about 1840, and the Société des Crèches was recognized by the French government in 1869. Day-care centres were established in most European cities and industrial centres during the second half of the 19th century; the first in Great Britain, for example, was established in 1860. In the United States, the terms day nursery, day- or child-care centre, and nursery school are often used interchangeably to identify various types of day care for children and for preschool educational programs.

Services to young children and their families have a longer history in European and Asian countries than in the United States, where day-care centres are generally private and of varying quality. In many countries, day-care facilities are associated with the mother’s place of work. Infant care and preschool programs are a normal provision in many developed countries, and in some countries, such as France and Italy, they are included in the regular public-school system. However, the United States has developed no societal consensus about the appropriateness of day care, and the resulting unevenness of standards of care is cause for concern. Both the importance and the availability of day care increased in the 20th century owing to the rising proportion of women in the workforce.