Alexandra R. Patterson is the Director of Policy and Strategy at Home Grown. Her work focuses on policy solutions that equitably distribute resources to home based child care providers and strengths based frameworks for understanding quality in home based child care settings. Her passion for early childhood is driven by a centering belief in access to quality education for all as a social justice issue.
Alexandra R. Patterson
Director of Policy and Strategy
Articles by Alexandra R. Patterson
Early childhood educators, including home-based child care providers, around the nation are exploring ways to bring the natural world to life as a classroom for children. We spoke with three providers who shared how they incorporate nature-based play in their programs.
Home-based providers earn the lowest wages in the child care system and they are often left out of policy discussions and loan forgiveness programs, contributing to ongoing financial strain. This new fact sheet sheds light on the earning challenges for family child care providers.
Home Grown celebrates the new Council of Economic Advisers brief, "Child Care Is Infrastructure: Evidence from Universal Pre-K." We are excited to be working with NIEER this fall to support a cohort of public pre-K systems with targeted TA and evidence-based tools to modify their pre-K systems to include FCC.
This blog dives into the value of family, friend and neighbor care for parents and children around the U.S. while calling for inclusion of FFN care in policy, resources and supports.
Incluir a los proveedores de cuidado infantil familiar en los sistemas preescolares ayuda a proveedores como Sylvia a garantizar que los niños pequeños reciban experiencias de aprendizaje temprano de calidad.
Including family child care providers in pre-K systems supports providers like, Sylvia, in ensuring young children receive quality early learning experiences.
Learn more about the White House Student Loan Forgiveness plan's potential to impact early childhood workers.
Nearly 20% of home-based child care providers carry student loan debt, but they were excluded from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.