Publication – Home Grown Child Care

Building Belonging: Valuing Family Child Care via State Licensing Systems

Licensing is critical infrastructure in the child care system: Through licensing, family child care providers are publicly recognized as child care professionals. In recognition of the important impact of state licensing policy and practice on family child care, Home Grown brought together its first-ever Family Child Care Licensing Work Group. The Work Group consisted of

A wooden box holds colorful pencils, including pink, yellow, blue, and black, on a blurred background.

Promising Practices for High-Quality Home-Based Child Care Networks: Family, Friend, and Neighbor Providers’ Recommendations

In many states, family, friend and neighbor caregivers are exempt from licensing regulations and operate outside of publicly funded payment systems. The recommendations presented here emerged from focus groups conducted to learn how networks are responsive to the strengths and needs of the FFN sector.

Expanding Access to the Federal Child and Adult Care Food Program for Immigrant Family, Friend and Neighbor Care Providers in Colorado

This report explores the unique role and challenges faced by immigrant Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers in Colorado, who provide essential child care for over half of the state’s children under age five. Despite their importance, these caregivers face significant obstacles in accessing federal support through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which reimburses child care providers for nutritious meals served to children. Many immigrant FFN caregivers, who are often license-exempt and care for children informally, face barriers to CACFP access, including fears of deportation, bureaucratic complexity, and language barriers.

Family Child Care Workforce Fact Sheet

The Family Child Care Workforce Fact Sheet highlights the importance of family child care (FCC) as a vital part of the early childhood care system.

Thick, textured strokes of rainbow colors painted vertically on a canvas.

Promising Practices for High-Quality HBCC Networks: Supporting Family, Friend, and Neighbor Providers

Family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers represent the largest non-parental child care sector in the United States, with the numbers of providers and children in these care settings far outnumbering licensed family child care (FCC) or center-based settings. Yet despite the prevalence, little is known about the types of supports and resources that FFN providers

Close-up of colorful wooden alphabet blocks, some showing letters like V, B, Z, H, and D.

Building Belonging: Valuing Family Child Care via State Licensing Systems (Full Report)

Home Grown convened a group of FCC providers to gain a deeper understanding of state licensing for family child care and develop recommendations for these systems. This report represents their work.

Home-based Child Care Helps Babies Thrive

Home-based child care is the most common child care arrangement for babies. This care type supports their development and sets them up for futures where they thrive. Home Grown has created this resource to share how home-based child care helps babies thrive.

A child’s hand builds houses with colorful wooden blocks on a light wooden surface.

Implementación de parámetros de referencia para redes HBCC de alta calidad: hallazgos de una encuesta nacional de redes HBCC

Este informe incluye los resultados de una encuesta nacional de redes sobre cómo las redes HBCC abordan los puntos de referencia e indicadores de alta calidad.

A child’s hand playing with colorful wooden building blocks on a wooden surface.

Implementing Benchmarks for High-Quality HBCC Networks: Findings from a National Survey of HBCC Networks

This report includes findings from a national survey of networks about how HBCC networks address the benchmarks and indicators for high-quality.

A hand placing a green block on top of a colorful wooden block tower indoors.

Network Benchmarks and Indicators Resource Collection

Explore this collection of resources on the network benchmarks and indicators, including the framework, national survey results, and focus group findings

Resource categories: Publication