Stay-at-Home Parents Get Recognition

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that any program for improving child care should include help for stay-at-home parents.

But as the first lady met with reporters on the eve of a White House conference on child care, she offered no policy prescriptions.

She also made clear that the conference would not yield major new federal initiatives, but instead would identify model care programs and encourage their replication.

The first lady has traveled to child-care centers and made several recent speeches to stir interest in the issue, which she said is too often ignored by policymakers.

Of parents who choose to stay home, Mrs. Clinton said, “We don’t do a very good job in this country, despite our rhetoric about family values, to create work and family situations that permit more families to make the choice that they think is right for them.”