Thursday, August 10, 2023, 1:30-2:30 Eastern (10:30-11:30 Pacific)
As state and city leaders around the country and the federal government continue to signal interest in expanding the reach of pre-K programs, there is a vibrant conversation regarding mixed-delivery service provision. Mixed-delivery systems with a goal to reach underserved children, families and providers must include family child care providers and the children and families that they serve. Family child care and other home-based child care programs are the first choice of many families and are a mainstay for families of color, those in rural communities, those who speak languages other than English, and those who work nontraditional hours.
Despite the interest and discussion of mixed-delivery pre-K, a recent study by National Institute on Early Education Research (NIEER) illustrated that fewer than 1% of providers in most pre-K systems are family child care providers. Exclusion of these providers from formal pre-K systems is a loss for the system and further marginalizes the families and providers who can benefit from the resource and opportunities offered via state, city and county-funded pre-K programs.
Join Home Grown and its partners at the Pre-K in Family Child Care Project Team (Erikson Institute, University of Delaware & University of North Carolina Equity Action Research Coalition) and NIEER on August 10th for a webinar focused on our shared work to better understand how we can build a mixed-delivery pre-K system that serves diverse families by including family child care.
Webinar participants will have the opportunity to hear directly from family child care providers who implement pre-K and how their experiences can inform our collective thinking on mixed-delivery approaches. Webinar participants will also learn key principles for equitable inclusion of family child care in pre-K systems along with the necessary policy conditions for success.
We encourage state, county and city leaders and pre-K advocates at various stages in your journey of including family child care in pre-K systems to join us.
Co-Sponsored by the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) and the National Association of Counties (NACo).
