In more than one million American families, children — as young as 8 years old — are partly or fully responsible for caring for adults or siblings they live with.
These children have to shop, cook meals, clean, do laundry and are responsible for the hygiene of those they care for.
They also have to go to school and try to do the normal things that kids go.
Not exactly the perfect childhood.
But there are a few programs out there that are trying to help. One, American Association of Caregiving Youth, located in Palm Beach County, Florida, is dedicated to helping such kids. They work with school districts to identify these children. More than 1,000 such kids have been helped.
The people who started the program are trying to replicate it around the country, according to a story in the New York Times.
Things the program does is alert schools to the reasons why the children aren’t performing well in school. And they offer tutoring, study programs and computers.
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