Day care is an entity unto itself whose values and goals have neigher been proclaimed nor supported. Unless it examines and declares its theoretical base reflecting planning in response to what it views as its purpose and mission, it will continue to be treated as a marginal, residual institution and user capriciously as a political and social instrument. Day care's unavowed goals have been almost exclusively work oriented, spiked with programmatic doses of education and social work geared toward the prevention of family breakdown--toward the family deemed inadequate socially or economically--the dysfunctioning family. Even its original avowed goal--prevention of juvenile delinquency--has consistently been vulnerable to the whims of governmental legislation and social attitudes. Day care is a prime example of organizational adaptation to precarious values. In the 1960's, as day care itself began the push for professionalization and viable educational goals, and with the development of Head Start programs as a way of operationalizing both community control and self-determination, the long dormant concept of viewing day care as a social service emerged. The reconceptualization of day care as a social service resource not limited to dysfunctioning families falls within the purview of preventive models of intervention. (Author/JM)