As leaders in early childhood education whose organizations represent those working across the broad spectrum of care environments, we are united in our support of New Mexico’s approach to addressing the that long has vexed policymakers, providers and parents alike. By designing and funding a system that is “both/and” rather than “either/or,” the state is addressing the needs of families and providers across center-based, home-based, school-based and friend, family, and neighbor (FFN) care settings.

We are also energized by what other states can — and should — learn from New Mexico’s progress. 

The state has taken a series of policy and funding actions over the past six years that have led it to create a for early childhood, approve a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to early education and eventually announce plans to make universal child care a reality. Others can learn lessons from these actions about how to strengthen their own child care systems, whether by making them more robust or even building a path to universal child care, so they can see the benefits in their own backyard.

The reality is that families in the U.S. rely on a fragile child care ecosystem, one that is often cobbled together to reflect each family’s unique needs, schedules and goals. But one thing all families share is a desire for their young children to be safe, happy, healthy and learning — no matter where they are. So a universal child care plan offering true choice is a win for everyone, as New Mexicans soon will experience.

Over the years, a key priority for the state’s policymakers has been increasing the supply of quality child care by supporting educators and caregivers. New Mexico has made advancements including raising wages for early educators and increasing reimbursements rates for those who take subsidies. The universal child care system’s foundation will be built on growing the number of well-compensated, well-prepared, well-supported providers across all settings.

that it needs another 5,000 early learning professionals, and the state pledges to grow the field by, among other things, building on years of investment in the education, preparation and compensation of early childhood educators. The state is committed to meeting parents and providers where they are, including by providing resources and support in multiple languages. The state will also offer low-interest loans for facility expansion; partner with school districts and employers to expand options for working families; launch a campaign to recruit licensed and registered home-based child care providers; make it easier for relative caregivers to participate in state programs; and increase reimbursement rates to programs to reflect the true cost of care, including incentivizing programs that offer a wage scale beginning at $18 per hour.

The bottom line is that there will be multiple entry points and advancement opportunities for early childhood educators along with strong support for caregivers under New Mexico’s new system — and each of those will create more supply of quality care options for babies and young children. 

We believe that this is how universal child care can and should work. Families, regardless of income, have the option to choose the setting that works for them while states strengthen and fund the entire continuum of care and education by prioritizing the people who provide it.

Success in New Mexico will require continued investment from the state legislature, ongoing collaboration between provider and caregiver communities, and efforts to expand access to high-quality child care environments. And it will require a continuation of the kind of advocacy, bold leadership and grassroots activism the state’s early childhood educators, caregivers and families led for years, which helped lead the state to this groundbreaking step.

For too long, families and policymakers have been faced with impossible decisions about whether to prioritize affordable care or quality child care, and how to support providers across a variety of places where early care and education happen. New Mexico’s step aims to put that to an end.

We have every confidence that New Mexico will make it work and demonstrate that there is a path forward in advancing toward universal child care. Every state with a child care crisis — and that’s all of them — can embrace the successes that come from New Mexico’s effort to support early educators and caregivers, which illustrates what’s possible when we come together for children and families.

Claims in the first two quarters this year were up about 16%, compared with the same time period last year, according to data provided to LAist from the California Employment Development Department.

Anne Chapuis, public information officer for EDD, said several factors contributed to the uptick.

“The January 2025 benefit rate adjustment has led to higher benefit amounts for eligible customers. Also, we typically see a higher seasonal number of claims submitted near the end of each calendar year,” Chapuis said in an email.

While claims tend to tick up at the beginning of every calendar year, the uptick in the first quarter of 2025 was nearly 25% higher than the same period last year.

Before this year’s change, most workers got up to 60% of their income when they took time off to care for a new baby. Now, many workers can .

The changes stemmed from  in 2022 that aimed to allow more families to be able to take leave, especially low-income workers. Prior  showed that higher-income workers were using paid family leave benefits at much higher rates than workers making less than $20,000 a year.

For those making under $20,000, claims were up about 2%, while claims for those making under $60,000 were up 17%.

How paid family leave works

Currently, moms and dads can get up to  to bond with a new child. That’s in addition to the paid time off pregnant people get before and after giving birth to a child.

The paid family leave program in California is funded through the , which covers about 18 million employees in the state. Workers pay into this fund with 1.2% taken out of their paychecks (it usually shows up on paystubs as “”).

Workers who make less than $63,000 a year can get up to 90% pay — workers who make above that get 70%.

State legislators from both parties want to expand family child care — the home-based sector of licensed child care, which has shrunk by more than a third since 2018. Both and budget proposals include pilots to open new programs to meet the needs of families and employers.

For the past two years, a team from the nonprofit (SWCDC) has done just that, creating North Carolina’s first statewide system of support for family child care. In the past year, the organization has helped launch 27 new family child care programs, 20 of which are open, creating at least 160 new slots for children. Two are the first family child care programs in their counties.

Since September 2023, the team has awarded start-up grants to another 26 programs and business sustainability grants to 38 programs. It has created the first statewide family child care mentorship program, regional communities of practice, and a marketing campaign that has garnered interest from more than 200 prospective providers since April.

The funding to do this work — from in the 2023 budget and a state contract through — ends at the end of June.

As state leaders ask how to improve child care access and affordability, the project’s lessons should carry forward, said Daniel Bates, the statewide project’s manager.

“I just really felt like we’ve done something here, and I hope that, no matter what, it still continues, because family child care is so incredibly important,” Bates said. “And they are part of early childhood education.”

‘People that will be around for a while’

Expanding family child care takes one-on-one support for new providers who often bring a passion for children but little knowledge of the complex regulations and business challenges that come with starting and operating a program, the project leaders said. It also requires funding.

In 2024, SWCDC, a nonprofit focused on early care and education based in western North Carolina, was awarded $525,000 from the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) from legislative pilot funding to expand access to family child care. The project’s expected output was to help 18 programs get started. Instead, it has helped launch 27 programs by awarding grants to cover start-up costs.

The grants ranged from $5,000 to $20,000 depending on the providers’ needs and the strategic goals of the project. The average grant was about $13,000.

Providers also spent their own money to open their programs outside of the grants. A survey of some of the providers found that most had spent between $1,000 and $5,000 before receiving grants to prepare their homes and buy materials.

The new providers are in 19 counties. In Alleghany and Montgomery counties, grant recipients will be the only family child care providers in their counties. Two providers speak Spanish fluently, according to the project leaders. At least 18 have college degrees. Four of the new providers were under 30 years old. Six were in their 30s; 10 were in their 40s.

“These are people that will be around for a while,” said Vickie Ansley, SWCDC’s Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) regional programs manager and family child care in-home program activity coordinator.

That grant funding was layered onto a larger the organization has been leading since February 2023 through a separate $3 million contract with DCDEE from the CCDF, the federal funding stream that helps states raise the quality of child care and helps working families afford it.

The statewide project had many components, including start-up grants of up to $10,000 and business grants of up to $5,000 for access to business training, software, or devices to manage programs. It provided 64 professional development workshops to providers on a range of issues. It also created a framework for family child care substitute pools and a database of zoning contacts and information.

Hands-on support from regional consultants

The crux of the project, however, was all about hands-on support and community building, the project leaders said. The project funded 17 family child care consultants who reached 477 providers in 73 counties with coaching and consultation.

The consultants, trained in the specifics of owning and operating a family child care program, were embedded in the 14 regional covering all 100 counties.

“We’re talking about people located in those communities,” Ansley said. “They know the (providers), or they know somebody who knows them.”

The PDG contract is in process but will be awarded to “in collaboration with multiple agencies that support family child care.” It will focus on increasing quality and family engagement, the spokesperson said.

DCDEE employs who meet with all types of potential child care owners to begin the licensure process. The licensing consultants began recommending reaching out to the regional family child care consultants to new providers.

The family child care consultants then could provide knowledge specific to family child care, dedicate time and energy to decipher the complexities of starting and sustaining a business, and offer support that was independent from regulatory oversight and compliance. Some of the consultants were former family child care providers themselves.

“Prior to that, if an agency had capacity, then they provided support,” Bates said. “The services were somewhat limited, whereas this was full 100% dedication for family child care.”

The regional consultants received business training to advise providers on budget planning, financial reports, marketing, and recruiting and retaining staff.

Kathleen Hoffler, a regional consultant at the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County who once owned a family child care home, described the role as her “dream job.”

Hoffler said she has helped providers take better care of their businesses, their children, and themselves. She encouraged providers to take time off and to reach out for help.

“If you’re having issues with enrollment, if you’re having issues with collecting payments from parents, if you’re having behavior issues with kids or you’re worried that one of your kids might need some developmental screening, and you don’t have anybody to talk that out with, it’s real easy to get discouraged and possibly decide it’s not for you and you’re going to close your program,” Hoffler said.

The family child care consultants connected providers to the pilot grant opportunities and helped them budget what they needed and how they should spend the funding.

Since the consultants were embedded in CCR&R agencies, they could connect providers with a variety of professional development opportunities and resources.

And they connected providers to mentors — seasoned family child care providers who provided a listening ear and advice on overcoming obstacles — and to communities of practice, regional teams that met to share ideas and support one another.

Annette Anderson-Samuels, owner of Phenomenal Kids Child Care Services, a family child care home in Kings Mountain, was one of those mentors. She said her advice to two new providers on how to advertise their programs kept them from closing. She recently helped a provider navigate a tough conversation with parents who were not following her policies.

“It’s to help each other become better at what we do as child care providers,” Anderson-Samuels said.

There were 22 mentors and 44 mentees across the state. In his decades working in early childhood, Bates said the group has been a standout.

“They’ve crossed county lines to go help each other in person,” he said. “The interest and the willingness, wanting to improve themselves, is really out there if they have the opportunity to do that.”

‘The lost segment of early childhood education’

The number of family child care programs, child care businesses within a residence, has fallen by about 36% since 2018, compared with an overall 15% decline in all types of licensed child care.

Eighty-five percent of licensed child care closures were home-based programs.

As a generation of providers age out of the work, a lack of awareness, funding, and support — along with increased regulation — has kept new providers from entering the field, project leaders said.

The team was intentional about listening to providers’ experiences and needs before developing a system of support.

Many brought up the low rates that family child care providers receive per child to participate in the state’s subsidy program. These rates, the state has found, do not cover the full cost of providing child care in any setting. Home-based programs receive lower amounts per child than centers. And providers in rural and low-income areas often receive lower rates than those in higher-income counties.

In rural areas where market rates are lower, “even though we need family child care in those communities desperately, market rates are a hindrance,” said Lori Jones-Ruff, SWCDC’s regional programs manager.

Jones-Ruff also sits on Gov. Josh Stein’s , where members have discussed the need for higher subsidy rates and a statewide floor rate that would level the playing field among counties. Research has shown the geographic disparities are wider than place-based differences in cost.

“That’s not just a center issue,” she said. “It’s for family child care as well.”

Low funding from public sources and private tuition leads to low compensation for family child care professionals. The for home-based providers in 2023 was $10.20.

The team also heard about obstacles due to HOA rules and zoning regulations. They found that local ordinances were putting up barriers to new programs in some places. Septic tank requirements were among the most common and most expensive problems.

“(Providers) have recognized, ‘I don’t really need to run to Raleigh; some of the challenges I have are really just in my own backyard, and I just need to talk to my town or county,’” Bates said.

The team heard about the isolation many providers feel, being alone in their homes all day without a network to air ideas or lean on when challenges arise. Providers said they did not feel respected or supported by the state.

“Historically, there was a huge emphasis put on center-based care in North Carolina,” Jones-Ruff said. “Homes did not feel that they were as valued and as supported as center-based. And so there was a period of time where they really felt like they were kind of the lost segment of early childhood education in North Carolina.”

So the team built a strategy based on both funding and relationships.

‘Like a prayer answered’

For Helen Cole, that assistance and funding was key to opening her family child care home in Taylortown in Moore County.

“I just feel like this wouldn’t have been possible without the support and the funds,” said Cole, who recently earned her four-star license to care for children from infancy to 12 years old at Helen Cole’s Day Care.

She received more than $17,000 to start her program from the legislative pilot funding. She bought new outside equipment, furniture, dramatic play sets, age-appropriate toys and books, a new kitchen faucet, a state-approved curriculum, and a new laptop.

Cole heard about the potential grant funding for start-up costs from the state licensing consultant. She was also connected with Hoffler.

Cole was excited to open after hearing about a local demand for second-shift care. After retiring as a substitute teacher in her local school district, she needed more income and was eager to fill a community need.

But after her initial meeting with a licensing consultant, she received a long checklist of everything she had to do. She said she felt overwhelmed.

“It was just so much information,” she said. “There are things on the website, but how do you adjust it for your day care?”

Plus, Cole had experience helping in her sister’s child care program, but she did not know the ins and outs of operating a small business. Even with a background in accounting, she knew the role would be challenging. So she reached out to Hoffler for an in-person meeting.

“It was like a prayer answered,” Cole said. “She broke it down for me.”

Hoffler helped Cole navigate the tough decisions that come with operating a business from your home, such as how much living space she was willing to sacrifice and what renovations were needed. And she helped Cole create a budget to apply for grant funding through the legislative pilot. She gave her ideas on high-quality and age-appropriate materials.

She also connected Cole with a mentor, helped her with business skills, and connected her with other resources through the Smart Start partnership.

Hoffler has helped her advertise her program and hold on through the ups and downs of enrollment, Cole said. Because she needed to hire another teacher, her niece Danielle Dixon, Cole said she is breaking even but has not started making a profit or been able to pay herself. She said she has been advised that it can take nine months to a year.

She said low subsidy rates and parents’ inability to afford her private rates have also been financially challenging. She serves one student whose parents are both working, making too much to qualify for a subsidy, but cannot afford her private rate of $200 per week. She only charges that family $85 per week.

Dixon, who has been working in child care professionally for 11 years but informally since she was 16 years old, has both of her children enrolled at the program. Dixon said her grandmother and mother, as well as three of her aunts, have worked in child care. She decided to partner with her aunt, Cole, to return to working with young children in a creative, exploratory environment after working in public schools.

Helen Cole’s Day Care opened in December in the home she was raised in, and where her mother used to take care of children whose parents were at risk of losing custody.

“All of our lives, we’ve had other children here,” Cole said.

Both Dixon and Hoffler have helped Cole strengthen her understanding and practice of early childhood care and education. Her program’s philosophy is based on relationships, exploration, and emotional and social development. Then academic foundations are added.

“It’s that give and take between you and this child,” Hoffler said. “They’re going to learn more from you if you are actively engaging with them and talking to them throughout the day, than they’ll ever learn if you give them a coloring sheet and try to teach them how to stay in the lines. There are no lines in early childhood.”

“That was a wow moment,” Cole said. “I understand that we have to have a curriculum, and we do, but the biggest thing is for them to develop on their own.”

It is this one-on-one attention and intimate environment that make family child care appeal to so many parents. Rural children, low-income children, and children of color are more likely to access home-based care than center-based, . It is often more affordable, more convenient and flexible for nontraditional working hours, and more culturally and linguistically relevant to diverse families.

Kailyn Green, whose daughter has been at the program for a month, said she toured other programs with open spots but they “didn’t feel right.” Then she visited Cole’s program and did a walk-through.

“I was like, ‘I’m sold. I’m good,’” Green said.

A licensed clinical social worker, Green said she has been able to return to work without worrying. She receives texts and videos of her daughter’s days and has been impressed by how much she has progressed, especially with eating more consistently.

“I love that she truly gets the attention,” she said. “She’s been able to form a relationship with her. It’s been great.”

Hoffler said she was excited to hear about Cole’s recent accomplishment: earning four out of five stars on the state’s quality rating scale.

“I’m just so proud of her,” she said. “She handled it like a pro.”

What’s next?

There are multiple efforts to build different kinds of supports for family child care. DCDEE said the project with SWCDC taught them that “Family Child Care Homes (FCCHs) would benefit from additional funding, continued community engagement, and professional development to improve quality,” according to a DCDEE spokesperson.

“FCCHs are a vital part of our state’s early care and learning network, and DCDEE is committed to continuing our support for these small businesses,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Though the contract for the statewide project ends on June 30, the spokesperson said the division will continue using CCDF funds and federal funds from the to provide business technical assistance and other services to family child care programs.

The PDG contract is in process but will be awarded to “in collaboration with multiple agencies that support family child care.” It will focus on increasing quality and family engagement, the spokesperson said.

DCDEE is also contracting with at UNC-Chapel Hill to provide evaluation and coordination of the PDG Elevate FCCH project, which will provide extra subsidy funding to family child care programs to increase wages for providers.

The House and Senate budget proposals direct DCDEE to use CCDF funds to expand family child care capacity. The House would allocate $7 million over two years for a pilot in three localities, and the Senate would allocate $6 million for a pilot in Alamance, Harnett, and Johnston counties. The funding would go to councils of governments in each of those counties to select a third-party vendor. Both proposals have specific requirements for the chosen vendor, including experience in establishing family child care homes in at least three other states and rural areas, experience in operating a substitute pool in another state, and technology that connects families with providers and includes billing and coaching functions. 

Meanwhile, Jones-Ruff said SWCDC will continue supporting family child care by retaining a statewide team with organizational funding — and will seek outside funding to continue other aspects of the project. Some of the family child care consultants will continue their work through local CCR&R or Smart Start funding.

“I can see just the monumental amount of work and the progress that has happened in such a short amount of time,” she said. “We’re not going away.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Caregiving is essential, especially for families with young children. And yet, in our society, caregivers are ignored. This has been true for centuries, and certainly since the that fundamentally changed eligibility for government assistance imposing time limits and requiring parents (including those with young children) to enter the workforce in order to receive benefits. In the absence of child care, it left , and spurred me to start All Our Kin, a nonprofit organization that trains, supports and sustains the often invisible family child care workforce.

These are skilled professionals who operate high-quality early learning programs out of their homes. As small business owners, they are a critical part of the early care and education infrastructure, providing . They fuel local economies and weather long days running their programs, creating jobs, giving parents freedom to work, and building community wealth. 

These early learning professionals also play an important role in the lives of the children they serve, not only as core adults in their daily lives, but also as key providers of support when faced with some of the greatest challenges of our time such as public health emergencies, climate disruptions and economic instability. They adapt quickly and creatively to support children and families.

The responsibility of supporting young children and their families through periods of collective stress is longstanding, but it came into sharper view during the height of the pandemic. When larger child care centers were compelled to close, many home-based programs , providing care for the children of essential workers. And they not only remained open, but made the best of a nearly impossible situation to help children and families get through the toughest of days.

They overhauled their , implementing rigorous sanitization routines and reconfiguring small spaces to accommodate distancing protocols, all while maintaining a sense of calm and continuity.

They converted their spaces into so school-aged children could attend virtual classes while the younger ones continued to receive early learning experiences. They used Zoom, social media platforms and phone calls to stay connected with children and families. And importantly, they developed innovative ways to help young children emotionally process what was happening. Some made tiny masks for dolls and stuffed animals, so children could see their reality reflected in play. Others put up tents in cozy corners, where children could crawl inside and feel safe. 

And the innovation didn’t end after the pandemic. Home-based child care providers have been responsive to a slew of new realities. that is already being where they live. Smoke from wildfires, , and flooding are making outdoor play unsafe or impossible for days at a time. In response, educators have come up with new ways to keep children active. They lay out mattresses for jumping, create makeshift balance beams on the floor with masking tape, and create obstacle courses in hallways and living rooms. These activities support physical development and release energy, even when children are confined to small spaces.

Rather than shielding children from environmental realities, educators explain what’s happening in age-appropriate ways, offering reassurance and building children’s ability to cope with change. I’ve seen the creative ways in which they are integrating climate education into their curriculum: growing vegetables, teaching children to care for plants, and using those lessons to build connections to heritage, health and sustainability.

When immigration enforcement threatens the stability of families, I’ve seen some providers share resources that can help prepare parents to exercise their rights if they’re approached by officials. I’ve seen others help families create emergency preparedness plans. And one provider recently shared with All Our Kin staff that she had taken custody of two children whose parents were detained. 

As economic uncertainty continues, these educators are often the first to hear when a child is hungry, or when a parent is struggling to access medical support — and they’re the ones families turn to for help. As policymakers consider cuts to programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid and Head Start, child care providers are preparing to help families find resources, even as they struggle to pay their own bills and survive without health care or retirement benefits.

This is on top of the day-to-day educational needs of children, . And these early educators continue to seek out and utilize resources to be even bigger champions for the children and families in their programs, including participating in professional development workshops and coaching to better support children who are experiencing developmental delays and working closely with early intervention agencies to identify concerns early so children receive the services they need. 

In my work, I see educators’ commitment every day. They aren’t just bouncing back from crises — they’re anticipating challenges, adapting in real time, and developing solutions that serve not just their programs, but their communities. And yet, their contributions are frequently overlooked. In fact, family child care providers are hanging on by a thread.

While expenses that are essential for their businesses rise, like costs for , insurance, groceries and utilities, these child care providers are earning once program costs are taken into account. 

As a child, I was overwhelmed by the twin challenges of caring for my brother and navigating the complexities of accessing support for him. I am in awe of family child care educators, who balance these challenges daily, for multiple children. Policy debates around early care and education often focus on public pre-K or center-based care. Family child care, the often forgotten infrastructure operating out of kitchens and living rooms, is rarely at the center of the conversation.

That’s a mistake.

If we want a child care system that is truly responsive, equitable and sustainable, we also need to invest in the people who are already doing the work, with unfailing dedication. In a world defined by ongoing uncertainty, family child care isn’t optional. It’s fundamental.

Shalicia Jackson, also known as Shay, has done almost everything there is to do in early childhood education.

Jackson has been an assistant child care teacher, a lead teacher, a Head Start coordinator, a family advocate, and a social worker in public schools. She has worked in nonprofits and at the Durham Partnership for Children, training teachers to better support young children. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in social work.

But when Jackson opened in 2022, a five-star family child care home in Winston-Salem, she entered a brand new world.

“One of the things I didn’t really have experience in was family child care,” Jackson said on a sunny day in her backyard.

“I knew they were out there, but they were — like we are now — invisible. We’re an invisible workforce.”

Inside an industry on the brink of collapse, family child care providers often feel even more devalued than their center-based counterparts.

Family child care homes, licensed programs in providers’ residences, receive lower subsidy reimbursements than centers and lack opportunities to get NC Pre-K funding. The statewide number of family child care homes by 34% since 2018.

Yet parents and children often prefer family child care for its intimate environments, flexible scheduling, and cultural and linguistic relevance. Its business model is also more sustainable than models for center-based care in rural areas, experts say, since often there are not enough children of a certain age in a community to make up entire classrooms.

In the years since the pandemic, regional and state efforts have formed to protect the state’s family child care network, recruit new home-based providers, and provide training and advocacy opportunities.

Jackson’s program is the product of one of those efforts — from Smart Start of Forsyth County focused on women of color interested in opening a program.

Yet hers is the only surviving program of the five that received the project’s start-up grants.

“This has been the most challenging yet rewarding career choice to date,” Jackson said. “That’s why I advocate — for the people that came before me and those that will come after me. I have to do my due diligence, because, coming from wearing many different hats in this field, this right here, it’s very hard work.”

With even more uncertainty facing child care in the coming years, Jackson has made it her mission to bring more understanding, respect, and investment to family child care, starting with her fellow local providers.

Balancing many roles

It was Jackson’s experience as a parent that led her down this unexpected path.

After moving from Durham to Winston-Salem for more affordable housing, Jackson planned to commute back to her job in Durham. But, like so many new parents returning to work, she couldn’t find child care for her toddler son.

“I was devastated. Everywhere I called,” she said, the waitlist “was like six months to a year to beyond.”

Her sister brought up the idea of opening a family child care home. It could solve her child care issue while letting her spend more time with her son. Plus, she had space and early childhood experience.

Over the past three years, Jackson has discovered the job’s intensity and multidimensional demands.

Family child care providers are balancing several roles. They are the sole provider not only of care and education, but of food, transportation, and family support services. They are also administrators, making their own curriculum and assessment choices, and keeping up with licensing and reporting responsibilities. And they are business owners, managing the finances of their programs and collecting payments from families.

“That is the challenge — wearing all those different hats and having to manage all of that,” Jackson said. “Instead of comparing family child care providers to teachers, we need to be compared to directors.”

The very thing that got Jackson into family child care — motherhood — has turned into one of the trickiest balancing acts, she said.

Because of the state’s licensing rules, her son KJ occupies one of her facility’s licensed seats. But for three hours during the day, he instead attends another child care program that recently opened.

It was too challenging to create clear boundaries, for herself and her son, she said.

“I found it really hard to balance being his mommy and being his teacher, and also he was having a really difficult time trying to manage being home and at school, telling the difference,” she said.

That means Jackson is losing out doubly, she said, because she is paying for out-of-home child care but can’t enroll another child in her son’s place.

Plus, as KJ enters kindergarten next year, Jackson is struggling with how to move forward.

“My reason for opening is now going away,” Jackson said. “My wheels are turning.”

‘A seat at the table’

Though Jackson stumbled into family child care for personal reasons, she has found a larger purpose in connecting with family child care providers who have been in the field for decades.

Understanding just how taxing the job is, Jackson wanted a space for others in her role to find support and understanding.

She formed the Triad Self Care Support Group as that space, an in-person and online support group that provides fellowship, professional development, and a space to share stories, resources, and challenges.

Jackson also shares advocacy tools and opportunities. When EdNC visited in April, she had just assembled members of the group to show up to a local conversation with elected officials and representatives from local institutions. By the end of the day, Jackson had a voicemail from a local Smart Start employee she had met at the event, asking how their efforts could include family child care providers.

“It is time for family child care home providers to have a seat at the table with the people that are making decisions,” Jackson said. “We can no longer afford to sit back and just vent about it. We need to be solution-focused and start joining committees and organizations, start being a part of the communities that are making decisions — going out and showing face. Because if not, then we’re just going to keep being at the bottom of the bottom. They’re going to prioritize other things, and we’re just going to be left suffering again.”

Jackson is serving as a member of the steering committee for the Pre-K Priority, a universal pre-K effort in Forsyth County that is expanding access but does not currently include family child care homes as potential sites. She is also connected with the state chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance to advocate for early childhood investment at the state level. In November, she was awarded for her advocacy as a family child care provider.

“In my journey of advocacy, I have learned that although I have won various roles within the early childhood field, and have a master’s degree, anyone can be a change agent without needing big titles or degrees, but rather a willingness to raise their voice and advocate for what they believe in,” Jackson said while accepting that award. “Parents and child care providers play a crucial role in determining what is best for their children. Their guidance and decision-making skills are nothing short of heroic, making them the real heroes. We must recognize their invaluable contributions and amplify their voices.”

The children inside her home, and the families she treats as extensions of her own, are the core of the community Jackson has created.

“Child care is my ministry,” Jackson said. “It’s where I was led to. The universe led me here. They keep me going, just to see their improvement, to see the parents happy. That keeps me hopeful.”

‘Not on a good path’

A story of one of the families Jackson has served has stuck with her through her journey of caregiving, educating, and advocating.

It’s the story of Cayden and Samantha Black. Cayden attended Jackson’s program after his previous child care facility closed because of staffing shortages. The program gave the family 30 days to find another arrangement.

“They came to me in desperate need,” Jackson said. Fortunately, she had an open spot.

Cayden thrived at the program.

“I thought it was just heaven there,” said Black, Cayden’s mom. “He was at big day cares, where there’s a lot of children and only one teacher. With Ms. Shay, it was her and only five other kids. So they all got one-on-one time, and it was more of a home setting. And he liked that.”

Both Black and Jackson could tell how much Cayden was growing.

“He learned so much there for like the year he was there than he did over the three years he was at the other place,” Black said.

After working full-time in retail and at an auto shop, Black went on maternity leave to have her second child. Colt was born with complicated health issues, which made it even harder for Black to find child care.

At the time, Jackson did not have an opening or the capacity to care for a child with a medical condition.

Black said she did everything she could to keep Cayden at Jackson’s program. Her in-laws pitched in to help pay for him to stay. But as she kept facing rejections for a spot for Colt, she could no longer afford to keep Cayden in care without returning to work.

“My husband is the only one working,” Black said. “He’s a mechanic. He loves his job, but they do not get paid well.”

Black is now struggling to meet her children’s needs as a stay-at-home mother. She not only wants child care access to work, but wants to ensure her children can learn.

“I feel bad, because he needs friends,” she said of Cayden. “He needs the structure of school.”

Black said Cayden was heartbroken to leave Jackson’s program. Jackson felt the same way.

“I had developed a relationship, and I’d seen so much progress with Cayden,” she said. “That is when it hit me, I was devastated. I was like, this infrastructure of this child care system is definitely not on a good path. And there needs to be something done. Her story has always stuck with me. I wish there was something that I could have done more to support the family.”

‘I wish I had an answer’

Jackson is committed to doing her part to fix that broader infrastructure, which she knows is at risk of collapsing further.

Jackson opened her program while the state was sending stabilization grants with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Though the job has been challenging, those funds have made it possible.

“There is no way that I would have been able to sustain my business to be open this long without the help and support of the stabilization grant and some of the local grants,” she said.

Those funds officially end on June 30, and providers are looking toward state legislators to extend them this session. If not, about one in five child care programs are expected to close within a year, according to . Prices for parents are also likely to increase.

Jackson is afraid to face either of those possibilities. She considers herself lucky to have a spouse that helps her financially and emotionally. She is looking for other ways to make ends meet without the burden falling on parents.

“I definitely don’t want to increase those prices, because it’s not fair to my families,” she said. “I do feel like if I just add, like one or two kids for my second shifts, maybe do Uber Eats or something like that, maybe that will help kind of supplement … I don’t know. I wish I had an answer. I’m gonna try to stay in as long as I possibly can. I’m gonna try to maintain.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Over the course of any given day, Tiffany Jones manages all of these situations and a hundred more. Drawing upon her knowledge of child development, she recognizes and addresses diverse learning styles and abilities, cultivating a sense of belonging and curiosity within her program. “I see them growing into a generation of confident, empathetic and capable individuals,” she states.

As owner and operator of , Jones educates eight children in two large rooms of her home in Rockville, Maryland. And if it weren’t for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, this dedicated and talented educator might have gone out of business, leaving the parents of these children unable to keep their jobs. And Precious Moments certainly wouldn’t be in these bright, capacious rooms without ARPA dollars.

Jones has plans for improving her business if and when more public investment comes — including a better outdoor space and a greater capacity to accommodate families who cannot normally afford child care — but first she has to make sure nobody swallows a Lego.

Jumping through Hoops

Originally from Bowie, Maryland, Jones aspired to be a doctor before motherhood and economics nudged her onto another career path. Enrolling in the rigorous pre-professional program in early care and education at Washington Adventist University meant bringing her three children along with her from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. four nights a week.

“I had to learn the business and jump through all those hoops,” she recalls. Her administrative skills came in handy during the pandemic, when she secured ARPA funding to relocate Precious Moments. It cost $8,000 to move three blocks away and to furnish the new site. The rent is higher here, but it allows her to have separate areas for living and working.

“I was closed for 18 months during the pandemic,” she recalls, “So the funding had to last to pay the living expenses of a single mom to three kids.”

When a facility closes, she adds, it cannot open the next day in the new location, owing to licensing and fire marshal certification. “It was really closer to two years from when I closed to when I reopened and was fully operational. The parents were like, ‘We need this place and you need to open.’”

Since the pandemic, and thanks to ARPA funding, the racial makeup of Jones’s class transformed. “For 15 years,” she says, “I didn’t have one Black client. Child care is very expensive, and in Rockville it’s just really hard to find high-quality, affordable care. But when I started to accept pre-K funds, that was the first time that I had a client of color.”

The expanded space she secured helped her qualify for the pre-K expansion funds. On the day I visited, Margie Ryan, the pre-K coach assigned to Jones by the , was there to observe class. “Tiffany is way ahead of the game,” Ryan told me, praising her vocabulary-building games centered on everyday household objects. Jones serves on the board of the Montgomery County and received a Montgomery County Innovative Leadership Excellence Award in October 2023.

Erica Phillips, executive director at the (NAFCC), praises Jones for “taking full advantage of ARPA to upgrade her program.” Thanks to the pre-K expansion and other factors, Phillips explains, Precious Moments is a more sustainable business today, which matters for Jones and her family, for the families she supports and for the local employers and economy that rely on her. Jones is the Maryland State Representative for NAFCC as well as an NAFCC policy fellow.

Jones’s financial situation is far from unique. “I know lots of providers that have used the ARPA funding,” she says, “and that’s what sustained their business.” Obstacles to receiving money included not having a separate bank account for their business or not having sufficient English-language skills to navigate the application. Montgomery County, Maryland has an unusually robust that helped providers with the process.

Beyond Precious Moments

Having learned to advocate for herself, Jones has proven effective at advocating for family care educators in Maryland. According to Phillips, “Peer leaders like Tiffany were incredible in disseminating information during the pandemic. Our child care leaders really stepped up, sharing information and making sure that no family child care program was left behind.”

Last year, care providers successfully lobbied Montgomery County to pilot a program for wellness benefits, including access to mental health counseling. A new goal on the horizon is what Jones describes as “a shared services model, where we’re all in a consortium of sorts to get access to benefits.” The vision includes business coaching, bulk purchasing and child care management software.

As Phillips points out, most family child care providers don’t have the means to save for retirement. Jones opened a self-employed pension at her credit union, but it is on her to make contributions to it. Given her slim profit margins, the account’s growth is slower than she would like.

What does the future hold for Precious Moments? “Any kind of funding would be helpful,” Jones says. “That outdoor classroom would be at the top of my list.” She also mentions curriculum upgrades, wraparound supports for her families and a backstop for her constant cash flow problem.

“I could resolve the cash flow issue by taking all privately paying families who pay before care is given,” Jones notes, “but then I wouldn’t be able to help families that really need care in order to work their jobs, and are looking for high-quality early education.”

Support for this reporting was provided by the Better Life Lab at New America.

Back Where We Started

After earning her master’s degree in psychology and working with teens for 15 years, Shanette Linton of the Bronx decided to move into child care. “I saw so many things as those 18- and 19-year-olds were hitting different barriers,” she says. “I realized there was something lacking in their educational foundation and experiences. Change needs to happen earlier in development. That’s when they start liking books, liking to learn.”

Remembering the difficulty she had had finding care for her own son, Linton opened Little Leaders Group Family Daycare in her apartment five years ago. Five days a week, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., she and an assistant care for six children, including two infants and two 3-year-olds with developmental delays, one diagnosed and one suspected. In so-called off hours, she’s preparing lesson plans, washing sheets and hunting for bargains on food and supplies.

Combining fees from parents and vouchers from the State of New York, Linton makes around $6,000 per month, but after paying her assistant’s wages ($15 per hour, up from $12 pre-COVID) and rent, as well as taxes and liability insurance, there’s often nothing left for her. “At this point,” she told me. “I’m pretty much breaking even, but only because I’m not paying myself the amount I should be.”

The only bright spot in this bleak financial picture was COVID-era stabilization grants — federal money — $65,000 between 2021 and 2022. “It was a great Band-Aid,” Linton says, “but now we’re back where we started. Struggling.”

Acumen and Confidence

Home-based child care is the most common type of care for U.S. infants and toddlers, offering a caring environment that parents trust and that is often more flexible than other forms. Before, during and since the start of the pandemic, however, the economics often don’t add up.

In the , Betsy Biemann and Keith Bisson describe the efforts of the , which serves Maine residents with “a passion for early childhood education who would like to start a child care business but lack the acumen and confidence to get started.” Helping these entrepreneurs to meet market demand, they contend, not only addresses shortages in care options; it revitalizes communities.

is another model. Launched in New Haven, Connecticut in the early 2000s, it offers training and technical assistance and now operates in 23 states and Washington, D.C. This is Linton’s support network.

South Bronx office coordinator Fendi Munoz-O’Shea met Linton in early 2018. “I was the first one to talk to Shanette,” she recalls. “She came with such enthusiasm, but what really stands out is her tenacity. When she says she’s going to do something, she does it.”

When North Bronx site director Erica “EB” Buchanan encountered the newly licensed Linton, she immediately realized that this was a person who “would do what it takes to improve her practice as an educator. She really is a lifelong learner.”

Learning and development specialist Rosemary Goyzueta started working with Linton as she went through All Our Kin’s business series and coaching program. “She worked so hard,” Goyzueta recalls, “developing the communication tools with the families, her contracts, the policy handbook. I would visit her during lunchtime, and even though it was her break, she was always there working. Since then, we have been in continuous communication because she’s always reaching out. She really has a passion for constant improvement for her business.”

Sandra Massey has been providing another type of coaching to Linton for two years — educational coaching — and on top of the entrepreneurial growth she notices, she praises her powers of observation. “This is essential for making sure that the children’s developmental needs are met,” Massey says. “We can’t diagnose a developmental delay, but we can make notes and recommendations, asking the pediatrician to schedule an evaluation.” Making these observations early makes a big difference for children with delays.

(Still) in Search of Stabilization

A master’s degree. Tenacious. Observant. A lifelong learner with a passion for constant improvement and a robust support network. And of course, she loves the children. Isn’t this someone we want to keep on the job? Doesn’t her financial struggle suggest that there’s something wrong with the system?

“We all know that we need permanent investment in child care,” says Buchanan. “When the [federal] stabilization money runs out, is it really, truly stabilized? Our providers are pulling from their own pockets to make sure their assistants are paid. It can’t be ‘one and done.’ It needs to be consistent.”

Linton notes that her financial challenges are all too common in the Bronx and beyond. “If there’s no federal funding or any type of money being put into child care,” she says, “there’s not going to be any child care left.”

She continues: “You have to love what you do, but then, at some point, you have to think about, ‘Does this make sense?’”

Washington business leaders this week are traveling the state with progressive Democrats and early learning advocates to drive home the need for more resources for child care.

Members of the Association of Washington Business and the current and former lawmakers embarked Monday on a statewide bus tour to meet with child care providers and raise awareness on challenges they face. Departing from Lincoln Options Elementary School in Olympia, the contingent plan to visit 10 early learning centers across the state by Friday.

Amy Anderson, AWB’s government affairs director, said it’s “critical” that business is at the table for these conversations.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ����Ӱ�� Newsletter

“A lot of our employers are struggling to find a qualified workforce,” Anderson said. “And they’re finding that one of the reasons is because people can’t go to work because they don’t have child care or they can’t afford it.”

The business group is fairly new to the child care conversation. Anderson said it became a priority in the last decade when many businesses realized they couldn’t gain or retain their workforce without affordable, quality child care.

A found that Washington state employers experienced $2 billion in costs related to turnover or missed work related to child care. The COVID-19 pandemic only exasperated the problem.

Former state representative Ruth Kagi, who pushed for more state investments in child care as   a lawmaker, said businesses are starting to understand that they can’t hire a workforce if there’s no child care – a stark difference from when she first ran for office.

“I joined the Legislature 24 years ago, and child care wasn’t even on the radar,” Kagi said.

In recent years, lawmakers have made progress. In 2021, the Legislature passed , which infused record amounts of money into child care and early learning and expanded access to those services. Much of the Fair Start for Kids Act was funded with the controversial capital gains tax, which

But Kagi said child care is still “very underfunded,” especially when it comes to making sure child care workers earn a livable wage and have proper benefits – something she said is not possible under the current finance structure.

Washington needs more options for child care, such as overnight or weekend care, or culturally diverse programs, Anderson said. Finding solutions will likely need to happen regionally as different parts of the state have different needs, she added.

Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Auburn, prime sponsor of Fair Start for Kids, said that in the coming session and beyond,  she wants to look at what else can be done to pay for care for infants and toddlers, to increase wages and benefits for the child care workforce, and to ensure that middle income families can access child care.

“Many years ago, we thought child care was something that only families in poverty need and what we know now, and especially what we’ve seen since the pandemic, is that all families need support,” Wilson said Monday.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on and .

Early Learning Nation magazine spoke to Marina Rodriguez, the New Haven site director and mentor coach, and Jessica Sager, cofounder and chief executive officer of All Our Kin, about the ways that the organization promotes entrepreneurship and quality early childhood education, which includes an emphasis on social-emotional learning.

Overcoming Obstacles, Creating Possibilities

“We bring family child care in from the margins,” says Rodriguez. Before All Our Kin came along, she says, there was little or no support for solo family child care practitioners, who had to navigate the licensing process for the state of Connecticut all on their own. The organization’s toolkit coordinators mentor prospective educators as they go through the licensing process and establish their businesses. In Connecticut and many other states, having a license enables providers to care for many more children legally, which means more income, in the form of fees and subsidies.

Sager cofounded All Our Kin knowing “the incredible value of what family child care educators bring for children, for parents and for communities.” Once educators have completed licensing, All Our Kin offers a variety of workshops and educational coaching. The organization recognizes the inherent knowledge of providers. Quality, Sager says, develops in tandem with inclusive systems. Both factors drive “the responsive nurturing care that we know children need.”

Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind

To teach our youngest learners, educators need to understand children’s experiences and traumas. This is the foundation for building trusting connections and interpreting children’s behaviors to understand their needs.

For example, explains Rodriguez, “Children don’t seek attention. What they seek is connection. They’re not manipulating. They’re communicating in order to have their needs met by the adult.”

All Our Kin helps educators create this connection through social-emotional learning, including the method. Originally developed for parents and rooted in the , the method arose in Spokane, Wash., and has spread internationally. All Our Kin was the first organization to adapt it for family child care educators.

“The magic lies in its simplicity,” Rodriguez says of Circle of Security. “It comes down to helping adults, who are bigger and stronger, also show up as wiser and kind.” An eight-week video series introduces the science and encourages personal reflection. Rodriguez and her colleagues have trained more than 170 educators so far.

According to Sager, “Circle of Security aligns with All Our Kin’s holistic framework of supports for educators. It belongs to the bigger piece of work that we’re doing around mental health for educators, parents and children.” Historical trauma, personal trauma and Covid-era trauma affect everyone differently and are expressed in a range of misunderstood behaviors, but when viewed through the Circle of Security lens, these actions begin to make some sense.

“We’re helping children become strong citizens,” Rodriguez says.

Many Marias

Rodriguez and Sager cite the example of Maria Amado, originally from Peru and now living in Hartford. “When we met her,” Rodriguez recalls, “she was not participating in any professional development. She didn’t have a supportive community. She felt alone and isolated.”

Amado became an enthusiastic participant in the All Our Kin community. In her program, there were two siblings, a son who was meeting his developmental milestones and a daughter with some developmental delays. Maria noticed that every time the mom dropped the children off, she showered her daughter with affection and made sure she had everything she needed, but she only waved good-bye to her son. One day, Amado called her aside and said, “I know that you are a great mom. You’re trying so hard, and I know that you love both your children, but I noticed that when you’re saying goodbye, you really focus on your daughter and not your son.” After the mom stopped crying, she thanked Amado and then began a ritual with the son, saying, “I love you” every time she dropped him off.

“We might think that’s not a big deal,” Rodriguez says, “but for that child, the fact that she is taking time to notice him, it sends a direct message to him about his place in the world, his place in connection to his mother, his self-esteem.” These are all factors that will contribute toward his confidence, help build strong relationships with others and, ultimately, help him succeed in school.

Not long after that, Amado received this text from the mother: “I would like to thank you for all the learning, patience and skills you have taught my son over the beginning of the years of his life. He has grown into a very happy, active and smart boy over the last few years. I appreciate you for everything you have done to help him in the world and the way that he sees it today. Thank you for being part of his learning and his transitions.”

Amado became a Circle of Security facilitator and now trains other family child care educators in the model.

”At All Our Kin,” says Rodriguez, “we have many Marias.”

For the Head family, the pandemic flipped their traditional responsibilities in a lasting way. released this month by researchers Richard Petts and Dan Carlson looked into relationships like the Heads and found that lasting change in traditional family setups was more likely when the woman worked in some capacity and the man had a remote-work arrangement. Fathers’ child care and household support is vital for mother’s labor force attachment. If a mom wants to stay in the labor force, a dad’s support isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s essential.

Petts and Carlson surveyed more than 4,500 parents about their work-life responsibilities during the pandemic and found that though a father’s remote work was a greater indicator for a more equitable division of labor, a mother’s job flexibility was not. A mother being able to have flexible work meant that she was more easily able to attend to the child care and housework needs as they arose. Petts and Carlson cautioned that simply increasing workplace flexibility can be a double-edged sword toward creating more gender equality at home. If men weren’t willing to take on more of the work at home, then women with the more “flexible” jobs wound up doing double duty.

But even those jobs that offered flexible, remote work as an option during the early stages of the pandemic were often concentrated in high-income occupations. Workers in lower-income jobs had fewer remote and flexibility options, and this has continued even as other structural supports, like schools and child care, have returned.

As part of their findings at “The Future of Gender Equality in a Post-Pandemic Society,” an event hosted by the Better Life Lab at New America, Petts and Carlson found that both fathers and mothers increased their at-home child care and housework responsibilities during the early stages of pandemic. But as domestic supports returned — such as schools and child care facilities reopening — fathers began to reduce their child care and housework. For the mothers who stayed attached to the labor force during the pandemic, the division of labor at home became more equal, and in most cases, has stayed that way since. Like Melissa Head, who worked throughout the pandemic as a nurse, the changes they have made to their child care arrangements have lasted — especially since Richard’s role is now permanently remote.

This wasn’t everyone’s reality. For Brittany Wiliams, a single mother, lack of child care remained one of the top obstacles in her return to work. Williams worked as a home health aide in Seattle, work she said had gone largely unnoticed until the pandemic, when “people realized we were the essential workers.” She wanted to keep going to work, but without child care for her son she had no option but to stay home with him. She considered bringing him along, but worried about the risk of COVID exposure — both for her child and for her clients. Too many missed shifts meant she had to quit her job. Williams had been working to get off public assistance before the pandemic, and she may have been able to achieve that had she found a tenable child care situation. Though Williams is optimistic for the future, this setback has largely erased many of her pre-pandemic economic gains. As a single mother, she feels she works twice as hard to maintain a level of stability for her family.

So what does gender equality look like going forward?

There’s no quick fix, and lasting change involves a shift from trying to solve this on an individual and single-family level, and look at the infrastructure support that will allow more families to achieve a manageable stasis. These include a lot of the priorities the Better Life Lab champions: access to affordable, reliable, quality child care; paid family leave; societal recognition and compensation for ongoing caregiving responsibilities; and creating meaningful work boundaries and advancements systems that allow for upward mobility for everyone, regardless of caregiving opportunities.

The symposium included a panel discussion, moderated by Better Life Lab’s Vicki Shabo and included First Shift’s Sophia Mitchell, The Century Foundation’s Julie Kashen, and Main Street Alliance’s Chanda Causer. The fact that our federal policies need to better reflect the families we currently have: two working parents, mothers as breadwinners, nontraditional family arrangements, caregiving for aging parents, and more — came up multiple times. Cash infusions to families under the American Rescue Plan Child Care Stabilization Program, made a significant difference — serving more than 220,000 child care providers and affecting as many as 9.6 million children—but even those will sunset this year.

The symposium shifted to an afternoon of engagement with colleagues in academia, reviewing forthcoming research on gender, families and work. Child care remains a primary focus, as does the lack of funds that are being spent to build up a child care infrastructure, and to compensate caregivers — including those who do work similar to Brittany Williams — accordingly.

“When the federal government invests in the care agenda, it matters: people get paid better and people get the care they need,” said Kashen, one of the panelists. “The American Rescue Plan Act was not only a one-time pandemic emergency action, but looking at the results, it provides important lessons learned. The cliff is approaching — child care stabilization funds need to be spent by September of this year. This is why we need the stories of why this works.”

The Vineyard’s year-round population, which largely comprises tradespeople and service industry workers, does not lead a glamorous lifestyle, explains Joanne Lambert, a longtime early child educator on the Vineyard. “Simple geography limits our resources,” she says, especially with regards to affordable housing. A community needs assessment in 2018 also revealed high-quality child care to be a “significant concern.”

“It’s called family child care for a reason,” says Lambert, who is leading an effort to increase the quantity and quality of home-based programs on the Vineyard. Recipient of a to promote sustainable island living as well as a 2021 from the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative, she provides mentoring and professional development for Martha’s Vineyard’s community of educators.

“The Zaentz FCC Innovation Networks Award was designed to highlight and strengthen precisely this type of provider-led peer learning work,” says Zaentz Initiative co-director Nonie Lesaux. “FCC programs have so many strengths and play a pivotal role in our diverse communities nationwide. As we think about the pandemic recovery, FCCs are crucial; they are set up to serve small, mixed-age groups of children, and they are often more flexible than other care types. Yet FCC educators tend to lack the support and professional networks that are available in other early education settings. We are thrilled to be able to support educators like Joanne, who are leading meaningful, innovative work that will benefit their colleagues as well as the children and families they serve.”

Lambert notes that on the Vineyard, as is the case around the country, the pandemic has opened people’s eyes to the importance of reliable, high-quality child care to the functioning of the economy. In addition to the mere fact of having someone to look after the children, the benefits of getting them ready for school are proven in study after study. Kindergarten teachers report that the children who’ve been through FCC are more developed in their social skills than those who did not.

FCC, Lambert explains, often makes sense for children who are too young for a child care center or who aren’t going to thrive in a center. “They get individual attention,” she says. “We really get to know those kids.”

After 30-plus years as an early childhood educator and business owner on Martha’s Vineyard, leading the network has meant a new stage in Lambert’s career. “I found a career I loved,” she says. “Now it’s my turn to spread the word and, hopefully, to build up the supply to come closer to meeting the demand.”

The opportunities Lambert sees on Martha’s Vineyard include:

• Immigrants. She mentions a Brazilian woman who wants to provide care beyond the Vineyard’s community of Portuguese-speaking families but is finding that English-speaking families are hesitant. Fostering a greater understanding on the island of the benefits inherent in early exposure to languages and cultures could lead to more immigrants finding child care to be a viable career choice, which would expand the pool of providers—an economic and social win for everyone.
• Real estate. There isn’t a lot of undeveloped land on the island, but existing homes and buildings could be renovated to accommodate child care. Collaboration among and other local stakeholders might lead to solutions that expand the availability of space for care.
• Workforce. Lambert engages with parents who might solve their own child care needs and become part of the bigger solution by opening a licensed program at home. In addition, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School leading to certification in early childhood education.

On any given day, Lambert might help a provider with the process of securing or renewing a license to provide care, advise someone on the renovations necessary to bring spaces up to code or speak to a group about the opportunity of pursuing early childhood education as a career path. In addition, she holds structured get-togethers with 10 licensed care workers every month. Initially, these sessions brought experts from elsewhere in the state, but the pandemic made arrangements challenging, and this obstacle led to a realization for Lambert: “Why not connect better with the resources we have right here?” The Vineyard has an artistic community to draw upon; it has musicians and yoga teachers. It has business owners with an array of expertise relevant to child care business proprietors. “Contracts, payment schedules—that’s like Greek to them,” she laughs.

In other words, if island life contributes to some of their problems, it’s also a source of their strength. “We have to depend on each other,” she says. “We have to be creative.” As the Vineyard emerges from the pandemic, Lambert is gratified to see a renewed sense of commitment among families and businesses to finding solutions together. “The idea of a network is catching on,” she says.

Over the next year, they visited dairy farms, brushed Highland cattle’s long hair, and branched off to learn about elk, deer and llamas. They read stories about cows, counted cows and compared different breeds. That’s the kind of child-led learning experience that Nelson plans to continue this fall when she participates for the first time in Vermont’s Universal Prekindergarten program.

“We base our curriculum on children’s interests,” said Nelson, who has 26 years of experience in the field and even has former students who enroll their own children in her program. “We know the kids’ learning style. We have a history with them.”

Allowing providers such as Nelson to participate in a publicly funded pre-K system could speed up the timeline for providing universal access to 3- and 4-year-olds — along with tuition-free community college, the other half of President Joe Biden’s plan to provide four more years of free public education. But from the National Institute for Early Education Research and Home Grown, an organization working to improve home-based child care, suggests it’s not that simple. Including family child care in pre-K initiatives could satisfy parents who prefer their home-like environment and increase the supply of preschool programs in communities with limited supply, the authors say. However, they caution policymakers against expecting in-home providers to immediately meet the same standards and regulations as pre-K centers.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ����Ӱ�� Newsletter

As Congress begins writing a $3.5 trillion plan that is expected to include $200 billion for early-childhood education, the report recommends lawmakers take a gradual approach that considers the perspectives of providers and parents.

“It’s really tricky for home-based providers. They lose out when they don’t get included [in public pre-K programs],” said Natalie Renew, Home Grown’s director. But pre-K systems that are primarily oriented toward schools and centers also disadvantage the providers and the families they serve, she added.

The primary downside, she said, is that if more home-based providers seek state funds to serve just preschoolers that could mean less space for infants and toddlers, space that is already in . Working parents are more likely to choose family child care over centers for , surveys show.

According to of Biden’s American Families Plan, families would be able to “choose the settings that work best for them.”

‘People coming into your home’

Parents family child care because it offers a more personalized environment, allows them to keep siblings in the same program and can offer flexible hours that centers can’t accommodate. Including home-based providers in state pre-K also could further diversify the workforce, allowing parents to find caregivers that reflect their culture and speak their language.

Family child care providers have to to be licensed, but many state pre-K regulations regarding facility space, hours of instruction and education requirements for teachers don’t easily translate to someone who cares for children in their living room. State funding could be a predictable source of income for providers, but it also means “more people coming into your home” to monitor compliance, Renew said.

New Jersey, for one, requires pre-K classrooms to be 950 square feet. “Would homes need dedicated spaces for the pre-K program with minimum square footage per child equivalent to the classroom requirement?” the authors ask.

States often require lead pre-K teachers to have a two- or four-year degree and special training in child development. Currently almost 50 percent of home-based providers have no college education, according to the report.

Educational requirements could increase the quality of family child care, but Renew said there’s a mismatch between most college-level early-childhood programs and the realities of family child care — especially around implementing a pre-K curriculum for 3- and 4-year-olds while still attending to the needs of babies and toddlers.

“It doesn’t work if we turn every family child care provider into a teeny tiny center,” she said.

Lanette Dumas, executive director of the National Association for Family Child Care, said she’s encouraged by the direction the administration is taking, but wants funding for an “on-ramp” to help providers earn degrees and make other modifications to their programs.

Finally, Renew added, there’s a false assumption that home-based child care is cheaper. The report argues that including such providers on a large scale could end up costing more.

In the Seattle Preschool Program, for example, a coach or consultant visiting a center would provide training for two to four teachers at once and “indirectly impact up to 40 kids,” said Monica Liang-Aguirre, who leads the program at the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning. With family child care, that same coach might be working with one provider who serves maybe two or three children. The coach is still receiving the same pay and likely has added travel expenses to reach at-home providers.

Renew said there’s not yet enough research on whether children benefit from home-based pre-K programs in the same way they do in centers.

San Francisco has the most experience, with at-home providers representing 18 percent of the city’s pre-K sites. In Seattle’s program, funded by a local , 25 at-home providers — about 2 percent of the overall number — are expected to participate this fall.

Liang-Aguirre said the department waived the bachelor’s degree requirement because it wasn’t realistic for home-based providers. The majority are immigrants and speak languages other than English.

They serve families that are often reluctant to use out-of-home care and are “trying to figure out if it’s a good idea to let their children go to preschool,” Liang-Aguirre said. “We see it as a really important model and an important way to make preschool accessible for all families.”

When she finally joined the group, she recalls, she got down on the floor and did activities side-by-side with her daughter. “The first time I went to Kith and Kin,” she says, “it was like coming home.” (Skip ahead to the last few seconds of this video to witness Cokis radiating joy.)

Cokis is one of the estimated in the United States. If parents of young children want to get to work, they need to find someone they trust to provide care. In most cases, this means someone they already know. Although Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) arrangements sometimes don’t even get a mention among the available options, it is “by far the most prevalent form of care for children from birth to school-age,” , and this to be the case regardless of family income or household structure. Build Initiative reports that grandparents are involved in providing child care for 20%-25% of children.

“It’s not a new thing,” says Sarah Ocampo, Candelen’s director of Family Support and Education. “This is how people have always made it work.”

FFN is almost always less costly and more flexible than child care centers, Head Start and other formal arrangements. During the pandemic, when centers closed, FFN made it possible for essential workers to perform essential functions. It continues to be the preferred option for parents working unusual hours and parents of children with special needs. In many cases, FFN is one element of a patchwork that resourceful parents assemble to make their schedules work.

Ocampo explains that FFN appeals to her state’s tribal population. In rural areas and on the reservation, she says, it’s sometimes the only option. In addition, many Arizona families prefer keeping siblings together, which isn’t always feasible in other settings. Arizona is also home to many immigrants, documented and otherwise. , about 13% of residents were born in another country, and 55% of these immigrants, like Cokis, come from Mexico.

The Kith and Kin Project provides training and resources for FFN child care providers through a 15-week series of two-hour sessions. Over 22 years, the team has developed ways of securing access, safety and quality for the providers it serves.

• Access: It’s hard to reach a child care provider who doesn’t think the term applies to her. “They didn’t deliberately go about starting a business,” says Ocampo. “They did it because they were asked, and they were available.” Many have raised children or siblings of their own, and Kith and Kin strives to honor their experience while providing culturally sensitive enrichment. The program entices providers with sidewalk chalk and other resources and materials. Staff develop relationships with churches and schools—institutions where trust is already established—and 85% of classes are in Spanish. Ocampo says morning seems to be the best time for the providers—after school-age children are dropped off.
• Safety: Some care providers who come from different cultures may not have extensive experience with the generally accepted safety standards in the U.S. That’s why Kith and Kin provides free fire extinguishers, cribs and other home safety items. Ocampo notes that some participants had never seen seatbelts before immigrating. Supports also include CPR and first aid training.
• Quality: , “Aside from FFN providers who are paid using child care subsidies and subject to [] regulations, FFN care is not regulated or tracked, so its quality is difficult to determine.” In Arizona, this stream of funding is generally not available, though a small amount comes through the program. Ocampo says the providers already see themselves as accomplished and confident in their role, but they welcome tips on nutrition, literacy, child development, discipline and safety. For example, , a brain science resource, is embedded in all of their classes.

Since more than half of young children are in FFN care, it’s no wonder that Kith and Kin, the largest and most well-known program of its kind, is attracting attention from other states. Ocampo notes that emergency COVID funding through the Child Care & Development Block Grant is going toward expansion of supports like those that Kith and Kin have developed. “We are always happy to talk about the lessons we’ve learned,” she says.

Disclosure: Vroom was created by Bezos Family Foundation, which published the former Early Learning Nation.