Latchkey Children

A wide variety of after-school programs have been lauded in the literature. These programs vary on several dimensions. Some programs focus on contact with working parents by telephone or computer. Some child-care facilities provide video monitoring of children, with the video stream transmitted to the parent's work computer. This technology could certainly be adapted to the home. Other programs stress after-school sitters in the home or neighbors who regularly look in on older children and youth. Many programs emphasize adult-supervised activities in the community such as sports, drama, dance, music, academics, and recreation. It appears that these programs vary in quality, cost, and availability in any given community. Too often parents with sufficient resources can provide high-quality and varied adult-supervised activities after school, whereas those with limited resources do not have these same possibilities.