Latchkey Children

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved comprehensive Democratic child-care legislation at a five-year cost of $27.5 billion despite strong veto warnings from President Bush. The 265-145 vote ends months of political stalemate in the House. The measure, which targets most of its benefits to low-income working parents, will now go to a Senate-House conference to be reconciled with a much different version approved by the Senate last June.

A puff of artificial smoke billowed across the West Los Angeles school stage as the beast turned magically into a prince and the fairy tale came to an end. Applause filled the Rosewood Elementary School auditorium, where parents, children and neighborhood shopkeepers were hoping for a magical conversion of their own. They were trying to pump up Rosewood's after-school child-care program.

Marika Evans listens to her daughter, Debbie, 10, practicing the clarinet in the next room and smiles with relief. Evans, a teacher, has studied child development and knows that the youngster is doing well. The sixth-grader at Culver City middle school is in the accelerated math program, plays in the band, has a wide circle of friends and is a member of the YMCA swim team.

Called unexpectedly to work late one evening, Michiko Kamiyama searched in vain for a baby-sitter for her 8-year-old daughter before grappling with a decision that bedevils countless working parents. In the end, she left the girl alone in the home. It turned out to be the wrong choice. Huntington Beach police took her daughter away that night, and Kamiyama, a widow who works as a singer and a waitress, was convicted of misdemeanor child abuse. She spent more than three months in jail.

An 18-year-old Anaheim woman who occasionally visited the house where 9-year-old Autumn Wallace was found stabbed to death has been arrested on suspicion of murder and burglary, and police are looking for two other suspects in the case, authorities said Thursday. A fingerprint found inside the family's home was the "key factor" that led to the arrest of Maria del Rosio Alfaro in connection with the June 15 slaying of the youngster at her home, Sheriff's Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Project Home Safe, a venture of Whirlpool Corp. and the American Home Economics Assn., notes that there is no magic age by which children are mature enough to care for themselves at home. The following questions may help parents evaluate their child's readiness: * Is your child physically ready to stay alone? Is your child able to: --Lock and unlock doors and windows in the home? --Perform everyday tasks such as fixing a sandwich, dialing the phone and writing messages?

Arguing that after-school programs are the way to keep children out of trouble, President Clinton announced $40 million in grants for 315 rural and inner-city school systems and individual schools--to provide learning havens after school, on weekends and during the summer. "For millions of Americans, 'Home Alone' is not a funny movie; it is a serious risk that children and parents undertake every day all across this country," Clinton said Wednesday.

Residents here remember the Blizzard of '79 as cold, inconvenient and burdensome, but, ultimately, just a lot of snow. They also remember that, when then-Mayor Michael A. Bilandic failed to remove that snow from the streets promptly, the citizens marched to the polls and booted him out of office in an astounding political upset. In the 11 years since, Chicagoans have endured five strikes by teachers and watched as their school system became known as the worst in the nation.

Afternoons used to be a lonely time for Ashley Pleis, a latchkey kid who attends Calvert Street Elementary School. She said she would hang out by herself on the playground until it was time to go home. It was hard to find other children to play with, she said, because most of the other kids who stayed were enrolled in after-school programs. She would feel left out, she said, as she watched the children having fun. "I would sit down and do nothing," said the fourth-grader.

It is 3:30, and the Goodnow neighborhood PAL center is a happy pandemonium of kids arriving from school. But 9-year-old Kevin Diggs is mooning around glumly, his little-lost-boy look a mismatch for the bright yellow "Student of the Week" ribbon pinned to his jersey. Taking in the scene, Natashia McMillian sweeps in to help. The 25-year-old AmeriCorps worker and tutor envelops Kevin in a bearhug, kisses his forehead and lavishes praise on him for his latest achievement.