True Mixed Delivery Pre-K Includes Family Child Care Providers — But How?

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats have expressed commitment to supporting a mixed-delivery, universal pre-K system that includes public schools, community-based organizations, and family child care (FCC) providers. With millions of children from birth to five in FCC programs, these providers make up an important part of our nation’s early care and education (ECE) landscape.

Parents choose FCC providers for a host of reasons. They may prefer the small setting, the generally low rates of staff turnover, the ability to send siblings of different ages to the same provider for a number of years, the cozy home environment, or the convenient location. Home-based child care is often more affordable than center-based care and tends to offer more flexible hours. FCC programs are more likely to accommodate the needs of parents working nontraditional or unpredictable schedules. FCC providers also tend to have the cultural and linguistic capacity to serve the communities around their home well. Despite these attributes, the nation has experienced a steady decline in the number of FCC providers in recent years.

Families should be free to choose the setting that best meets their needs, but there are challenges with incorporating FCC providers into a public pre-K system. And without a true mixed delivery system, universal pre-K policies could negatively disrupt the ECE landscape, driving three- and four-year-olds away from center-based and home-based programs. This would make it challenging to stay in business, as low adult-child ratios and small group sizes make infants and toddlers more expensive to care for. Federal and state policies must be careful to strengthen the ECE system that already exists, not completely disrupt it.

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) and Home Grown recently released a report, Including Family Child Care in State and City-funded Pre-K Systems: Opportunities and Challenges, that explores the current landscape for FCC provider participation in state pre-K.

While it is common for three- and four-year-olds to attend FCC programs, the report found that a very small percentage of public pre-K students were enrolled in FCC homes. Even though 24 states allow FCCs to receive state pre-K dollars, seven of the 24 states reported that no FCCs participated in their state pre-K program in 2019-2020. Of the ten states that the researchers had data for, most served less than one percent of the state’s total pre-K enrollment in FCC homes. Oregon was the exception with 14 percent of its Preschool Promise children enrolled in FCCs. The report also examined pre-K programs in four large cities: Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle. San Francisco stood out with18 percent enrollment in home-based settings, representing nearly 1000 children served by 259 FCC providers.

Last week, NIEER and Home Grown hosted a webinar on their research, bringing together federal, state, local, and practitioner perspectives on the inclusion of FCCs in state pre-K.

During the webinar, federal ECE leaders expressed a real commitment to mixed delivery. Katie Hamm, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Early Childhood Development in the Administration for Children and Families, said, “We know that children are already in these settings. We want to expand, enhance, and improve early learning where it’s already happening, and that includes family child care.” Miriam Calderon, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Early Learning at the U.S. Department of Education, recognized that this work will not be easy, but reiterated a commitment to helping states and communities strengthen their mixed delivery system.

There are a number of reasons why FCC participation in pre-K remains rare and why further incorporating FCC into these systems will be challenging. NIEER and Home Grown identified opportunities and challenges in three broad areas —access, quality, and cost— and explained that the challenges and opportunities are often interconnected. Facilities are one example. There is not currently enough space in public schools to serve all three- and four-year-olds. Incorporating FCC into public pre-K programs expands the number of available facilities. However, creating environments that meet pre-K program standards to provide for children’s health, safety, and education can be very difficult to achieve in a home. Homes may not have the square footage or dedicated space to serve pre-K students in accordance with program requirements.

Public pre-K programs usually have additional quality standards beyond QRIS or licensing, but quality can look different in home-based settings. One recommendation in the report is to establish “equivalent but not necessarily identical program standards” for FCC programs. While there is a need to have different regulations for FCC to accommodate unique aspects of the home-based setting, it is important to maintain appropriate standards to ensure quality of care.

One of the most important components of quality is the strength of the early educator workforce. There are thousands of FCC providers around the country with expertise in teaching young children in their communities, but these providers are often underpaid, undervalued, and excluded from ECE policy conversations. Adrienne Briggs, owner of Lil’ Bits Family Child Care Home in Philadelphia, presented in last week’s webinar. Briggs has been in business for 29 years. Five years ago, Philadelphia enacted legislation to implement a mixed delivery, universal pre-K program and she wanted to participate. She worked hard to advocate for a seat at the table. She said, “For some reason they just keep wanting to forget about family child care. It’s always center, then group, then they look at family child care….Family child care has really shown that we can handle this.”

Briggs’ program is also a Head Start grantee and she has a Master’s in Early Childhood Education. The report points out that “about 20% of home-based providers have a BA and almost 50% have no college education.” Public pre-K programs have varying qualification requirements, but national experts have called for a minimum of a bachelor’s degree with specialized knowledge and competencies in early childhood education for lead teachers. While there are many obstacles standing in the way of early educators earning degrees, Briggs is evidence that it is possible. Briggs said, “We have more talents than most people would expect from us… just give family child care the opportunity, be patient with us, put the expectations upfront.” It is essential that any increases in qualification requirements for FCC providers take into account the unique knowledge and skills needed to run their programs and include meaningful supports to accommodate their busy schedules and financial realities.

During the webinar, Monica Liang-Aguirre, Director of Early Learning for the Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning, explained how the Seattle Preschool Program started including FCC providers in 2017 because of the important role they play in Seattle’s ECE ecosystem, especially for immigrant and refugee communities. They created a hub structure, contracting with agencies that serve as hubs and work directly with FCC providers. “These agencies work as a support network for family child care providers,” said Liang-Aguirre. They provide technical assistance to help FCC providers meet the Seattle Preschool Program requirements. The report recommends considering the use of such intermediaries “to possibly reduce costs, improve accountability and oversight and increase quality.”

The city also has a coaching and professional development team for the providers. Webinar panelists emphasized the importance of professional development to help FCC providers adjust their practice to meet pre-K program requirements. Liang-Aguirre said there has been a steep learning curve for many FCC providers. She recommends going into this work with a lense of differentiation. “Some family child care providers need training in different languages, at different times, they are all at different places on the continuum of being comfortable with curriculum, with doing child assessments, but as Adrienne said they are incredibly willing and interested and capable.”

Creating a high-quality mixed delivery system that builds on our existing system will be no easy task. And other than a few select public programs, incorporating FCC into state and local pre-K is uncharted territory. Thoughtful policy design and implementation will be essential to ensure that FCC providers can meet the quality standards necessary to provide high-quality early learning. The verdict is still out on whether Biden’s Build Back Better agenda will become a reality, but Katie Hamm said in last week’s webinar, “We feel hopeful that we will be in a position to make major investments in child care. And that means all of us...We can’t afford to leave anyone behind.”

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