Family Child Care Update

A 2007 report by the National Center for Children in Poverty, "Family Child Care in the United States," based on a thorough review on recent research, offers these insights on family child care in the United States...

• Nearly one-quarter of all children are in family child care at some point before beginning elementary school.  Furthermore, the majority of young children with working mothers are cared for in private homes.
• These children spend an average of 31 hours per week in family child care, which can include nights and weekends.
• Family child care providers make up a sizeable portion of small business owners in the USA.  Nationally, there are a total of 213,966 licensed family child care homes, which breaks down to 166,514 small family child care homes (serving up to six children) and 47,452 large homes (serving 7 - 12 children). 
• Families using home-based care (both regulated and unregulated) are more likely to prefer this care for infants and toddlers, but prefer preschools and centers for older children.
• 95 percent of family child care providers are women.
• 90 percent of family child care providers are parents themselves — about 33 percent care for their own children in addition to unrelated children.
• Most family child care providers have low earnings ($15,000 to $25,000 annually for full-time care of low-income children) and most work long hours with little to no access to employment benefits.
• The quality of care in family child care is not associated with the provider's age or years of experience, but positively correlated with the training and education the provider receives.
• The majority of parents using family child care are satisfied with their arrangement.  Parents using family child care believe that their children receive more individual attention in home-based settings.

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