The Aim and Scope of Early Childhood Education In the last few decades, the number of working mothers

rapidly increased and it changed the way who care and rare young children. So, many governments took the responsibility to provide affordable and accesible childcare as a social and political issue. Increasing attention to early childhood education and care can be seen in all the industrialized countries but we will focus on current situation in USA (Izumi-Taylor, Lee, & Franceschini, 2009). According to The US Department of Health and Human Services, 57.3% of mothers who have under age of three children are working and these parents are still facing some kind of challenges about caring for their children. Because of high request for quality care for young children and number of working mothers will likely increase each other. The quality of care will affect children's future life-styles and personalities, and we need to consider its importance.(IzumiTaylor, Lee, & Franceschini, 2009). Wittmer and Peterson have stated that childrens' experiences especially in three years of lives have strong correlation with their later development; and that parents, family members, caregivers, and others incvolved in children's lives need to promote their early care. Educators assumed that parents should send their children centers which they can build up healthy relationships with caregivers. Training caregivers is an crucial task to form this kind of relationships. On the purpose of analyse the quality of child care and its impacts on children's later development, main research have still carring out in every part of the USA. The result of the research indicates that forming warm relationships can occur thanks to forming attachments between children and parents/caregivers.(Izumi-Taylor, Lee, & Franceschini, 2009). Quality parent or caregiver relationships originate in the bonding and attachment success of the infancy and toddler periods. (Puckett et al., 2009, p. 445). It is general knowledge that children's multiple attachments in addition to their parents will appear positively in future life. Approximately 63% of mothers who have under age of 3 children work because of economic reasons. Children of today face a rapidly changing society with new

challenges and possibilities (Engdahl & Rabusicova, 2011). Fortunetely, children can overcome these diffuculties by helping healthy relationships and well development thanks to early childhood care and education. According to Barnett; "Research clearly shows that high-quality preschool education improves later school success, employment and earnings.It has lessened crime and delinquency and unhealthy behaviors like smoking and drug use." (Kamerman & Gatenio-Gabel, 2007). Early childhood and education in US contains that a diversifed amount of part-day, fullschool-day, and fullwork-day programs, under educational, social welfare, and commercials, funded and delivered in a variety of ways in both the public and the private sectors. In 1965, only eighteen states in the U.S. constituted public kindergarten; by 1970, eighty percent of five year olds attended public kindergarten and, in 2000, all states established some kind of kindergarten, most universal. Kindergarten can be seen as an major introduction to primary education for American children. It will become universal experience in couple of years. The current situation situation is about 98 percent of children attending kindergarten at least a half day.Altough many of centers service care for 3-5 children, some of them service care for infant and toddlers(1-2) (Kamerman & GatenioGabel, 2007).

Compulsory School Attendance Age across States in 2007 Compulsory School Attendance Age Age 5 years Age 6 years Age 7 years Age 8 years Number of States 8 22 18 2

From Education Commission of the States(2007). Early Childhood Education and Care as an Investment USA government focus on early childhood education in recent years. The policy makers

evaluate early childhood education and care as an investment. According to research done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology the return on investment for every dollar spent in early childhood education is $13 in long-term costs to society. White House states that on his web site: "The years before a child reaches kindergarten are among the most critical in his or her life to influence learning. President Obama is committed to providing the support that our youngest children need to prepare to succeed later in school. The President supports a seamless and comprehensive set of services and support for children, from birth through age 5. Because the President is committed to helping all children succeed regardless of where they spend their day he will urge states to impose high standards across all publicly funded early learning settings, develop new programs to improve opportunities and outcomes, engage parents in their child's early learning and development, and improve the early education workforce. "

References Puckett, M., Black, J., Wittmer, D., & Petersen, S. (2009). The young child: Development from prebirth through age eight. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Engdahl, I. & Rabusicova, M. (2011). Chidren's voices about the state of the Earth. IJEC, 43, 153 176. Izumi-Taylor, S., Lee, Y.Y., & Franceschini L. (2011). A comparative study of child care in Japan and the USA: who needs to take care of our young children?, Early Child Development and Care, 181(1), 39-54. Kamerman, S.B. & Gatenio-Gabel, S. (2007). Early Childhood Education and Care in the United States:An Overview of the Current Policy Picture, International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 1(1), 23-34. Focus of Early Childhood Education(n.d.). Education. Retrieved December 22, 2011, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education