Many families throughout the United States use family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care. FFN providers are essential members in the early childhood education (ECE) ecosystem, along with licensed, center-based and home-based care. They provide care that is valued by parents and fill gaps for care in locations with limited licensed ECE programs. However, FFN providers and the strengths and contributions they offer to families and children are often overlooked by policymakers and other stakeholders because they frequently operate outside of the public systems. Home Grown contracted with Mathematica to conduct the Understanding the Strengths of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Child Care project to identify the strengths and limitations of FFN care and the needs of FFN providers. The study also aimed to inform considerations for future measures to assess FFN quality.
Report: Understanding the Strengths of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care
Announcing the Enriching Public Pre-K Through Inclusion of Family Child Care (EPIC FCC) initiative
The EPIC FCC initiative seeks to support state, city, county and tribal government leaders in expanding the participation of family child care (FCC) educators in their pre-K systems or engaging FCC educators in these pre-K systems for the first time. Home Grown is committed to ensuring that home-based child care providers can fully participate in well-resourced early childhood initiatives, including pre-K. Learn more and apply.
Making Progress Through a Complex Issue: Imagining a New Family Child Care Licensing Approach
This family child care recommendation report provides in-depth insight into the challenges providers face in current family child care state licensing systems and recommended solutions to help design system reform using FCC provider perspectives and expertise.