EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, FEBRUARY 23, 2001 (FRIDAY)

Public Information Office                                      CB01-35
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)

Jason Fields/Kristin Smith/Terry Lugaila
301-457-2465

    A Child's Day Includes Rules for TV, Extracurricular Activities
                 and Organized Care, Census Bureau Reports

 The majority of 3- to- 17-year-olds have family television rules,
one-half of school-age children (6-to-17 years old) participate in
extracurricular activities and just over half of those under 12 have been
in nonfamily child care, according to a report released today by the
Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

 "This is the first time the Census Bureau has looked at how kids are
spending their days," said Jason Fields, one of the authors of A Child's
Day: Home, School and Play, which is based on 1994 data. "Decisions that
families make about their children's daily activities are important, since
many will affect their children's success over time."

 (The data should not be confused with Census 2000 results, which will be
released over the next three years.)

 According to the report, 85 percent of 6- to- 11-year-olds have rules
about the types of television programs they watch at home, 42 percent of
children 12-to-17 years old participate in sports activities, 19 percent
are enrolled in after-school lessons, and 65 percent of children ages 3 to
5 are currently in or have been in organized child care.

 Highlights:

   -- Children 6-to-11 years old are subject to more television rules than
      older children. While 60 percent of them have rules about the types
      of programs, numbers of hours and time of day they can watch, only
      40 percent of children ages 12 to 17 have all three types of these
      rules.

   -- About 75 percent of 12- to- 17-year-old children who participated in
      an extracurricular activity are on track academically (that is, in
      the grade at school expected for their age), compared with 60
      percent of children in this age group who did not participate in
      such activities.

   -- About 32 percent of children 3-to-5 years old started some type of
      non-parental child care by the time they were 3 months old, and
      nearly half (47 percent) had been in some type of regular child-care
      arrangement by their first birthday. On average, children younger
      than 3 years old spent 30 hours per week in their first child-care
      arrangement.

   -- Nearly half of children 3-to-5 years old (47 percent) were read to
      seven or more times per week. About 9 percent of children in this
      age group were not read to at all in the week prior to the survey.

  Data are from interviews conducted in late 1994 with parents in a sample
of households selected in 1992 and 1993 as part of the Survey of Income
and Program Participation. Statistics from surveys are subject to sampling
and nonsampling errors.