The Seattle Times, February 21, 2002:

Almost half of Washington children from infants to age 12—nearly a half-million total—are regularly in the care of extended family, friends or neighbors, says a University of Washington study released today.

A majority of those informal care providers—nearly 300,000 people who are unregulated by the state—have no specific training in child-care, child-development or parenting skills and tend to be less affluent and educated than the state's general population, the study found.

"There's this whole group of people out there caring for kids, and nobody is watching them, and nobody is helping them," said Nina Auerbach, chief executive officer of Child Care Resources, a King County information and referral service. "We can't just ignore this whole segment of care anymore."

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