Promising Practices for High-Quality Home-Based Child Care Networks: Focus Group Briefs

A child playing with colorful plastic building blocks, holding up a yellow piece.

Drawing from multiple focus groups conducted with network leaders and providers, this series of briefs examines the underlying values and goals of home-based child care networks, network services offered to providers, and network implementation practices that research suggests most likely contribute to positive outcomes for providers, children, and families.

Guiding this series is the Strengthening Home-based Child Care Networks brief which describes a set of 11 evidence-based benchmarks and indicators for high- quality networks grouped into three broad categories: “Why” benchmarks unpack fundamental values and goals of a network; “What” benchmarks articulate network services that meet goals for providers, children, and families; “How” benchmarks reflect evidence-based implementation strategies used by networks.

Supporting Providers as Equal Partners also available in Spanish and Chinese:

Supporting Providers’ Economic Well- Being and Sustainability

Network Practices Around Equity and Social Justice also available in Spanish:

September 30, 2025
Carmela is a family, friend and neighbor caregiver who is proud of her Hispanic heritage. Learn more about how her Hispanic heritage shapes her work as a HBCC caregiver in this blog.
September 8, 2025
Grandparents are unsung heroes of home-based child care. Millions of grandparents are stepping up all across the U.S. to provide primary care for their grandchildren. Stories like Tracy Owen, Natalie Whitesides, and Maria Buehler show how grandparents balance work, retirement, or other responsibilities while providing loving care.