Latchkey Children

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?

It is a scene repeated daily in countless offices and factories across the country. Anxious parents watch the clock and, minutes after the ringing of distant school bells, phone home to check up on their small fry. Sound familiar?

To help provide about 100 latchkey children with a place to go after school, the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education has voted to allow the Girls Club to build a child-care center at a local elementary school. At its last meeting, the board voted 4 to 0 to approve the lease of 25,000 square feet at Clinton Elementary School to the Girls Club. Under the agreement, the district will lease the playground space to the organization's child-care program for $1 a year for 20 years.

An innovative new program that will enlist senior citizens to provide after-school care for dozens of latchkey children has received $16,500 in grants and could start as soon as April 1. Under the Safety, Health and Understanding in Education program approved by the City Council a year ago, child-care professionals, community volunteers and seniors will supervise recreation and tutoring for about 25 children ages 6 to 9. SHUE will operate out of the Westminster Senior Center from 2 to 6 p.m.

Given the choice between homework and television, most any 8-year-old would opt for the latter. So Ronny VanderMeer, with no one around but a 12-year-old to dictate otherwise, flicked on the cartoons. "I'm going to call your mom," announced Amber Nitchen, who shares an Anaheim apartment with Ronny, his mother and her own mother. Amber telephoned Cari VanderMeer at work, while her unfazed housemate stared at the TV screen.

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.

Childhood has changed. It is not the superficial change among generations that parents and grandparents like to recall--the quick car ride instead of the long walk to school; milk in store cartons rather than bottled and on the doorstep. It is not just hand-held calculators in place of slide rules, nor the blip of Nintendo instead of the ping of pinball, not just 2 Live Crew instead of Elvis. It is real change, fundamental change, sometimes even life-and-death change.

The Orange County School Nurses Organization supports the concept of the healthy child. We think that the current trend in some school districts to cut out school nurse positions is not in the best interest of our children's welfare. With a background that includes growth and development, education, psychology, social and cultural variables and problem-solving techniques, the school nurse, on a daily basis, deals with ill children, possible suicides, drug abuse, child abuse, latchkey children, dropouts, runaways, teen-age pregnancy and families in crisis.

The County Department of Education announced Wednesday that Kraemer Junior High school in Placentia and Dale Junior High in Anaheim are the winners in what county schools Supt. John F. Dean called a "$500,000 giveaway." The two schools will split the money, provided by the Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning, and will use the funds to begin pilot programs for "latchkey" students and others at risk of delinquency or substance abuse.

A proposal to provide latchkey children with after-school supervision and senior citizens with part-time jobs has won approval from the City Council but still needs funding, officials said. Under the plan, proposed by the city's Aging Commission, about 25 children ages 6 to 9 would be cared for by senior citizens trained as tutors. The program would be operated at the Westminster Senior Center from 2 to 6 p.m.