Oldest Programs in the World

Child care has recently received a lot of attention from politicians, researchers, economists, and news reporters.  This creates the image that child care is a new thing — a recent invention.  In fact, organizations have been providing early childhood services for families for a very long time.  The Exchange article, "The Heroic Beginnings of Child Care," listed 75 child care organizations in the United States that have been in continuous operation for over 90 years, including two that have been providing services for over two centuries.

We are now reaching out to include early childhood organizations with long histories from around the world.  If you work for, or are aware of, an organization in your country or community that has been in continuous operation for over 90 years, please share what you know in our "Oldest Early Childhood Programs Survey."  Specifically, we are looking for programs that serve children five and younger for at least four hours a day, but not more than 10 hours a day.  In other words, we are not looking for residential programs where children reside 24 hours a day.

The results of this survey will be featured in an upcoming issue of Exchange magazine.  In addition, everyone filling out the survey will be given access to a digital version of this article.

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.

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