Blog

The Challenge of Accessing Quality Child Care


Family child care is often the most available, flexible, and affordable method of child care, providing a familiar home environment and smaller, mixed-age groups of children. Many families prefer home-based care for these reasons, but it is a particularly convenient option for parents who work inconsistent or rotating work schedules and may not be able to afford more expensive, center-based programs.  While family child care is thus a commonly accessed option for low-income families, family child care (FCC) providers often lack the resources or knowledge to support early childhood development and build school readiness skills.  They work very long hours for little pay, are responsible for the safety, care, and feeding of varying ages/numbers of children, and often have limited access to quality training and professional development opportunities that are affordable, convenient, and meaningful to them.  A national, multi-site study found that less than 10% of family child care homes could be considered “good” quality, while about half provided only “adequate” care and over a third were rated “inadequate” (Helburn and Howes, 1996).
The challenge to improve the quality of care available in family child care settings is an important one, because we know that high-quality care can help level the playing field for children who are at risk for entering school unprepared to succeed. Research shows that low-income children enrolled in high-quality programs benefit disproportionately, presenting significant cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional gains (Li et al., 2012; McCartney et al., 2015).  Furthermore, children who receive higher quality care are less likely to develop behavioral issues by adolescence (Votruba-Drzal et al. 2010).

SHARE

Related Resources

January 29, 2024

Thinking Outside The Box: Washington State Program Visits IKEA for Inspiration...

The Washington State ParentChild+ team took their staff on a field trip to IKEA this fall as part of their regularly scheduled professional development for Program Coordinators. Participating staff were given a budget of $15 and a prompt to find items they could incorporate into their home visiting…

January 4, 2024

ParentChild+ in San Jose, CA appears in the Mercury News for navigating hybrid home visiting ...

Curious about how the shift to hybrid and virtual visiting has worked since the COVID-19 pandemic? Below is an excerpt from a Mercury News article featuring our California State Director, Whitney Evans, and site staff from SOMOS Mayfair describing how the change has worked for San Jose families:…

November 16, 2023

Blog from WA State Director Pamela Williams: Exploring Unconscious Bias & Colorism in Infant ...

Pamela Williams, Washington State Director, wrote this blog piece for Start Early titled Exploring Unconscious Bias and Colorism in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Pamela spoke at the 2023 ParentChild+ Conference, and at the 18th World Congress for the WAIMH World Association for Infant Mental Health in…

September 29, 2023

TTN Philadelphia Giving Circle presents Women of Impact panel, featuring PA State Director Malkia ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Philadelphia, PA) – Please join ParentChild+’s own Malkia Singleton Ofori-Agyekum, PA State Director, on October 3rd (2:00 to 3:30pm EST) when she will be a featured panelist at the Women of Impact program hosted by the TTN Philadelphia Giving Circle. To learn more about our…

September 28, 2023

NY State Director Andre Eaton Attends NY Book Forum Panel A Lapse In Literacy: How We Fight Back...

September 20, 2023 New York Book Forum held a discussion at Scholastic Inc. featuring Andre Eaton, New York State Director, ParentChild +; Jill Hardy Heath, President and CEO, Heart of America; and Tami Mount, M. Ed., Senior Director, WETA / Reading Universe. The conversation was moderated by Deimosa…

July 6, 2023

Parent Child+ Announces the Appointment of Two New Board Members...

ParentChild+ continues to deepen board diversity and passion for early learning and family and caregiver support with two new members. New York, NY, July 1, 2023. ParentChild+ is delighted to announce the appointment of two new members to its board of directors: Christine Choi and Hardik Shah. Christine…

January 9, 2023

2022 Person of the Year: Erica Steindl...

Congratulations to Erica Steindl, Site Coordinator for ParentChild+’s North Fork program at CAST in Suffolk County, NY. Erica has been named the Suffolk Times 2022 Person of the Year! Steindl embodies the ParentChild+ mission, to ensure that all children regardless of their race, socio-economic status, or zip code have…

November 2, 2022

Family Nurturing Center Event Highlights ParentChild+ and Shares Powerful Stories from Parents, ...

BOSTON, MA – October 26, 2022 – Family Nurturing Center event highlights ParentChild+, for the full press release please click here.

October 21, 2022

Morans Donate $200K to ParentChild+...

MINEOLA, NY – September 26, 2022 – ParentChild+ is incredibly grateful to Lydia and Thomas Moran for their generous donation of $100,000 this year and their commitment of a second $100,000 in 2023. The Morans have made a powerful philanthropic commitment to supporting parents and caregivers in historically…

September 21, 2022

Remembering Dr. Sanford & Phyllis Bolton...

MINEOLA, NY, September 21, 2022 – Dr. Sanford Bolton was a widely respected expert in the field of biopharmaceutical statistics, co-founding the Hygrosol Pharmaceutical Corporation, as well as serving on the faculty of the University of Rhode Island and St. John’s University. His wife, Phyllis, was a distinguished…

September 15, 2022

ParentChild+ Expanding in Ireland...

GALWAY, IE, September 10, 2022 – Galway Rural Development has announced via the Galway Daily, that it is expanding the ParentChild+ Program from the Ballinasloe region into Tuam town next month. Please full article here. ### Media Contact: Ricardo Abreu, ParentChild+ Development & Communications Coordinator Phone: 516.883.7480 Email: rabreu@parentchildplus.org…

August 17, 2022

Julian Gomez J.D. Returns to the ParentChild+ Board of Directors...

MINOELA, NY, August 18, 2022 – ParentChild+ is pleased to announce the reelection of Julian Gomez to its Board of Directors. Gomez previously served on the board for seven years before moving abroad with his family. ParentChild+ Board President Jim Molloy enthusiasm at Gomez’s return, spoke for the…