Louise Slaughter: “experts estimate that nearly 5 million school-age children in the United States spend time without adult supervision…”

“experts estimate that nearly 5 million school-age children in the United States spend time without adult supervision during a typical week. Too many of these unsupervised children hang out on the street, exposed to drugs and crime, or sit at home with only the television set for company. I recently introduced the America After School Act, H.R. 3400, to expand high quality after-school programs for 5- to 15-year-old students to give these kids a safe place to go when the school day ends. In 64% of families with children under 18, both parents work. A recent study showed that when children were unsupervised for long periods of time early in life, they were more likely to display poor behavior adjustment and academic performance as early as the sixth grade. Clearly, we no longer live in the time of Ward and June Cleaver. Young people today need productive, supervised activities for the periods when they are not in school.”