Peabody Terrace Nursery School differs from the other centers in that it is actually a school and not a day care center. The school has about 25 three-year-olds in the mornings from 8:45 to 11:45 and an equal number of four-year-olds afternoons from 1 to 4.

Children of Peabody Terrace parents are given some preference in enrollment, but one-half of the children are from the community-at-large. The school is also a parent cooperative, begun about 12 years ago, but parents are not involved in actual classroom teaching any longer.

The school is not actually concerned with recruiting for a racial mix since an ethnic mix exists by the nature of Harvard graduate students, Director Barbara Rassman said. Several children who come to the school are non-English speaking at first.

The school operates on a 38-week per year basis, with an additional but separate eight-week summer school program. This year's tuition for the 38-week period was $400. For 1974-75, the parent governing board has voted unanimously to raise tuition to $450. Rassman said that several of the graduate student parents have had to take out loans to pay the tuition. In a select number of cases, non-student parents from the community receive scholarships from the school to send their children to the center. "So far the few who have needed help, we could help out," Rassman said.

The insecurity which the present child care situation offers has caused great concern within some of the parent groups. Helen Quinn, a member of the parent board of the Radcliffe Child Care Center and assistant professor of Physics, said that the center is just now "breaking even financially." She said she felt it was very important that Harvard award scholarships to graduate students for day care.

Of course, the chief issue regarding child care is what is good for children.

A questionnaire mailed to parents of students at the Radcliffe center asked them the reasons the reasons why they sent their children to the school. Although the first reason was that both parents work, it was a single-parent family or the parents were students and working, many of the parents added that they felt the experience with other children was good for their children at that period of their development, Quinn said.

Another independent educational observer of the center reported a "remarkably positive attitude in the children and said they were mature for their ages, particularly in relations with one another and with strangers." Quinn said.

However, quality child care demands quality personnel, which costs money.

The question of aid for parents and teachers is the overriding concern with the running of the centers. A dependency allowance which "would partially offset the cost of child care" is accounted for by the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences Financial Aid Director, Richard Kraus, said. The present dependency allowance is $650 per child. But allowances and money from the parents' resources cannot exceed the budget which the financial aid institutes, Kraus added.

Kraus said it was possible for students to borrow money for day care, but said that when the student borrows from federally insured or Direct Student Loan Program funds, he is technically borrowing "for educational expense."

Kraus said that in 1973-74 few loans were requested and that more loans went to single students than married students.

In terms of staff supplements to salaries, Harvard Yard Center director, Jane Trumpy, said that benefits such as health care and social security would "significantly add to the staff's satisfaction with salaries."

Most directors agree that maintenance provided by Harvard would ease budgets of day care centers. Helen Quinn of the Radcliffe Center said that equipment can only be purchased through fund-raising by parents; tuition is barely meeting salaries and material expenses for the center.

Although only policies of informal involvement in child care prevail, Harvard is considering child care in some of its long-term projects. The 500 units of housing being built near the Business School will contain a day care center as part of the facilities.

But although availability looks better in the future, financing still looks bleak. Like the battle for married student housing in the forties and the fifties--which was not won until colleges recognized that students marry--the day care problem will not be resolved until college administrators recognize that many also have families.