This report contains data collected in the December 1984 Current Population Survey (CPS) school-age child care supplement. The supplement questions were intended to measure the extent to which school-age children were not in the care^/1 of their parents during nonschool hours and, more importantly, the extent to which they were unsupervised by any adult.

For each child 5 to 13 years old in the household, questions were included on whether he/she regularly spent time alone or in the care of someone other than a parent, during any of three periods of the day: before school, after school, or at night. In addition, there were questions for each period on who, if anyone, cared for the child, age of the caretaker, and daily duration of the care arrangement. This survey is similar to a CPS supplement conducted in October 1974 on daytime care of children and in February 1965 on care while mother worked. The survey is not comparable to the child care surveys conducted as supplements to the CPS in June 1977 and 1982, in which the data were collected from working mothers on the care arrangements while they worked, for their youngest child under 5 years old. Data collection was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Department of Health and Human Services.

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^/1 Cared for and supervised are used interchangably in this report.