Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Millions of children in non-parental child care in the U.S. are cared for in home-based child care (HBCC) settings that include regulated family child care and family, friend, and neighbor care. HBCC is the most common child care arrangement for infants and toddlers with an employed mother; children of color from low-income families are also disproportionately cared for in HBCC arrangements (NSECE, 2016; Laughlin, 2013). Yet, research on child care quality finds lower quality in HBCC settings than in center-based programs (Bassok et al., 2017; Porter et al., 2010).

A small body of research on HBCC quality improvement suggests that support services such as coaching, training, access to resources, and opportunities for peer networking help providers improve the care they offer children and families (McCabe & Cochran, 2008; Shivers, Farago, & Goubeaux, 2016). Family child care networks that offer home-based child care providers a combination of these types of services on an ongoing basis have recently received attention as a promising strategy for engaging providers in quality improvement. A handful of studies have found that family child care providers who are affiliated with a network are more likely to offer high-quality care to children than unaffiliated providers (Bromer et al., 2009; Porter & Reiman, 2015). The federal Office of Child Care has emphasized networks as a quality improvement strategy for states seeking to increase the supply and quality of infant toddler child care (Schumacher, 2015) and several states have included networks in their 2016-2018 CCDBG plans (Halle & Epstein, 2017). However, despite this recent policy focus, no national data exist on the prevalence and characteristics of family child care networks across the U.S.

This paper will share findings from Phase 1 of a three-year research initiative on HBCC support that examines the range of network program auspices, types of providers served, staffing and funding strategies as well as types of support services and approaches to service delivery offered across networks. Phase 1 entails a national web-based survey to more than 500 organizations across states and tribal communities in order to identify networks and the quality improvement services they offer that are most likely to impact quality caregiving in child care homes. Follow-up qualitative telephone interviews with directors from a sub-sample of 50 promising networks that meet criteria for high-quality service delivery will focus on aspects of service implementation including organizational characteristics, staffing and supervision, data systems, and strategies for engaging and sustaining provider participation in quality. Survey and interview data collection will be completed by mid-summer, 2017.

Study findings will be presented in the context of a new conceptual framework for measuring high-quality support to HBCC providers that articulates the elements most likely to improve quality caregiving and positive outcomes for children and families in these settings (Bromer & Korfmacher, 2016). Findings will help inform policy directions and program efforts to design and develop quality programs and initiatives for this sector of the early care and education workforce.