The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.
-Barbara Kingsolver
A 2007 report by the National Center for Children in Poverty, "Family Child Care in the United States," based on a thorough review on recent research, offers these insights on family child care in the United States...
- Nearly one-quarter of all children are in family child care at some point before beginning elementary school. Furthermore, the majority of young children with working mothers are cared for in private homes.
- These children spend an average of 31 hours per week in family child care, which can include nights and weekends.
- Family child care providers make up a sizeable portion of small business owners in the USA. Nationally, there are a total of 213,966 licensed family child care homes, which breaks down to 166,514 small family child care homes (serving up to six children) and 47,452 large homes (serving 7 - 12 children).
- Families using home-based care (both regulated and unregulated) are more likely to prefer this care for infants and toddlers, but prefer preschools and centers for older children.
- 95 percent of family child care providers are women.
- 90 percent of family child care providers are parents themselves — about 33 percent care for their own children in addition to unrelated children.
- Most family child care providers have low earnings ($15,000 to $25,000 annually for full-time care of low-income children) and most work long hours with little to no access to employment benefits.
- The quality of care in family child care is not associated with the provider's age or years of experience, but positively correlated with the training and education the provider receives.
- The majority of parents using family child care are satisfied with their arrangement. Parents using family child care believe that their children receive more individual attention in home-based settings.
Being with Babies: Understanding and Responding to the Infants in Your Care is a great resource for both beginning and experienced caregivers. Each chapter describes an issue that caregivers face daily, offers scenarios that illustrate the challenge, suggests solutions caregivers can use to address the issue, and concludes with a review of key points. Being with Babies teaches caregivers how to handle everyday challenges while learning about developmental stages. This hands-on resource is perfect for caregivers of children 6 weeks to 18 months old, as well as for staff development and resource libraries. Chapters include information on:
- Developing relationships with babies
- Using observation to understand babies
- Communicating with babies
- Selecting appropriate toys
- Setting up safe and effective learning environments for babies
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Comments (11)
Displaying All 11 CommentsLITTLE KINGDOM Child Care
Colorado Springs, Colorado , United States
See questions regarding how accreditation has impacted family child care........ are parents aware of what this is??? Is it important to parents????? Are providers able to charge a higher tuition rate???? Are parents willing to pay for this???? What value have providers found in having this after the first year, two years.........????
LITTLE KINGDOM Child Care
Colorado Springs, Colorado , United States
I would like to see questions regarding how accreditation has impacted family child care........ are parents aware of what this is??? Is it important to parents????? Are providers able to charge a higher tuition rate???? Are parents willing to pay for this???? What value have providers found in having this after the first year, two years.........????
Jeanne - Provider 40+ yrs.
Colorado Springs, CO
United States
I'd like to see a comparison of the licensing regulations for family child care in different states. I'd also be curious about the numbers of providers leaving family child care due to overly prohibitive regulatory requirements.
New Beginnings Child care
Pueblo, Colorado, United States
Most of the previous questions asked can be answered at your local Resource and Referral Agencies that you are listed with for referrals. You can get educational classes and other ECE information from them as well. That will be were most of your educational opportunity will come from. Don't hesitate to contract other agencies in larger towns near you to see what they have for educational classes or the health department. Other great resources for information is Red leaf Press (exceptional resources for early childhood professionals) 1-800-641-0115 or www.RedleafPress.org or Care Courses at 1-800-685-7610 or www.carecourses.com which are electronic courses online for early childhood education. Hope this information will be of great assistance to you. God bless you for the work you do with families and their beautiful children.
Sincerely: Connie Q. in Colorado 21 plus years in the profession
StartSmart Stay Smart
Pasadena, California, United States
I am concerned about the financial state of California which is effecting family home child providers financially, too. I have been conducting research as to what grants are available to assist family home child care providers. If anyone is aware of such grants, please email me at [email protected].
Thanks,
United States
Would like data specific to infants and toddlers with FCC homes that are using FCC networks or systems.
Katrina, you see the Erickson ES of the FCC networks impact study out of Chicago?
http://www.erikson.edu/downloads/cmsFile.ashx?VersionID=3756&PropertyID=78
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United States
Interested in % of FCC homes using FCC networks or systems or any variation of a shared service alliance. Furthermore, data re: impact of FCC networks on FCC quality broken down by data specific to infants and toddlers versus 3-8 and school age.
Child Care Council of Orange County
Goshen, New York, United States
I am highly interested in the report results and share the same FCC criteria as mentioned in the previous comments. I would like to know where FCC providers are obtaining their professional development and do they go the their local resource and referral agencies for support.
United States
The things I'd like to see in a FCC Trends report are probably not readily available, but here's my list:
vacancy rate
# years in business
average age of child served
% of children full-time/full-year vs part-time/part-year
education/training of provider
participate in QRIS (y or n; if y, at what star level?)
average fee
% of subsidized children served
% of bad debt
Most significant challenge
United States
Hello,
Regarding the trends in family daycare my comment is that I own/operate a successful group family daycare. We operate more like a daycare/preschool and provide a toddler and preschool curriculum addressing all age groups in a mixed age group setting of 2years to 5 years old. In the past our children started at 2yo and stayed through 5yo and left us for elementary school. The trend we are experiencing the last 2/3 years is that our kids are leaving at 3-4 yrs for a center because parents want their child among same age children as they think that is more beneficial. We would like our kids to continue to stay with us until 5 and my question is what are some of the things we can do to reassure parents that in our mixed age grouping, their preschool children are receiving the necessary preparation for elementary school? Thank you.
PA Key
United States
For the next report, I'm interested in:
-the percentage of family child care providers participating in QRIS (nationwide and individual states)
-percentage serving low income families, english language learners, children with special needs, teen parents
-how they choose their professional development (topics, modalities,convenience etc)
-how many are part of a network of other family child care providers (either an association or an informal group of peers)
-what supports are most valuable to them
-what supports they continue to want but don't have access to
-how many have taken small business classes - either as non-credit or credit
- what special services and opportunities they offer families (late pick ups, evening or emergency care, family picnics, clothing swaps etc.)
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