This brief summarizes research on day care availability, quality, and costs and offers recommendations for improving these issues. Examples of summarized facts include: (1) children in poor quality child care are often delayed in language and reading skills and display more aggression toward other children and adults; (2) a large study of child care centers indicated that about 86 percent provided mediocre or poor-quality services; and (3) time taken away from work in order to provide family care costs the economy more than $11 billion in lost production each year. Recommendations focus on increased facilities, funding, education, and flexibility. (EV)