Network Benchmarks and Indicators Toolkit

Colorful wooden blocks stacked in a cube, with colored pencils lying on a white surface nearby.

This Toolkit is intended to help you implement the Benchmarks for High-Quality Home-based Child Care networks. It includes materials that you can use to meet the WHY, WHAT, and HOW benchmarks. These materials have been developed and used by networks across the U.S. Some are examples of mission statements, provider leadership meeting agendas, anti-bias checklists, description of services, and recruitment fliers that you can adapt for your own network. Others are forms such as provider needs assessments and provider feedback questionnaires that you may want to modify for your network’s purposes. In addition, you will find links to websites that provide a variety of information related to services for providers.  

This toolkit is intended as a working resource to which additional materials will be added as they become available.

USING THE TOOL KIT

The Toolkit is formatted as a filterable Excel sheet. Sortable columns are included for type of benchmark (why, what, how), benchmark (A-K), indicator (A.1-K.3), type of tool (website, agenda, survey, budgeting tool, etc.), and file format (.docx, .jpeg, .pdf, etc.). You may see some resources listed more than once if they are applicable to more than one benchmark and/or indicator.

Currently, there are some benchmarks and indicators for which we do not yet have any applicable tools. If you believe that your organization has something that would be useful to the field, please submit it for review for inclusion in future versions of the toolkit via email.

August 27, 2025
Ahead of FFN Appreciation Week 2025, a member of the Home Grown staff shares her personal experience with family, friend and neighbor providers and why she's passionate about supporting them.
July 25, 2025
Severe climate and weather disasters in the U.S. have become more frequent. For home-based child care providers, these disasters not only affect the health and well-being of those impacted, but they also disrupt the livelihoods of HBCC providers and caregivers whose businesses are run from their homes.
July 23, 2025
When the devastating LA fires displaced families and child care providers, Home Grown and local partners moved quickly to provide emergency cash aid.