Home-Based Child Care Research

Action-oriented and policy-relevant research

APPLIED RESEARCH AT ERIKSON INSTITUTE

Dedicated to Supporting the Home-Based Child Care Sector

Evidence-based research and implementation tools for quality child care policy and practice change

Home-based child care (HBCC) is the most common form of child care in the United States. It includes a continuum of practitioners from grandparents to licensed child care educators who care for children in their own home-based small businesses, rather than a child care facility or daycare. HBCC is a critical support for working families.

Did you know?

Home-Based Child Care (HBCC) is the #1 most common source of child care in the US

40 %

of infants and toddlers attend HBCC

12 million +

children ages 0-12 in HBCC

BACKGROUND

Since 2007 Erikson Institute has been dedicated to growing the evidence base about HBCC and developing resources that aid this critical sector. While HBCC practitioners and the families they care for have often been overlooked in research, policy, and practice, Erikson aims to elevate their stories.

Supporting Working Families and Growing Small Businesses in All Communities

Erikson’s HBCC Research seeks to address gaps between knowledge and practice alongside HBCC practitioners and families. HBCC practitioners, many of whom are small business owners, provide critical supports to working families and their children across rural, urban, and suburban settings.

By conceptualizing and executing home-based child care research, along with research articles and tools, Erikson is able to inform decisions and policies that focus on children, families, and their caregivers.

Our research and evidence focus on four key areas:

Understanding Strengths of Home-Based Child Care

Examining Availability and Supply of the HBCC Sector

HBCC Policy Implementation and Navigation

Home-based Child Care Networks

Key Area 1

Understanding the Strengths of Home-Based Child Care

Part of the fabric of nearly every community and neighborhood in the U.S.

Research shows that HBCC practitioners leverage strengths and assets to deliver high-quality care and early childhood education for children, families, and communities. HBCC includes features of quality that are distinct and often overlooked in policy and practice conversations.

Our team explores how home based child care providers:

Conceptualize quality
Provide care during nontraditional hours
Identify differences between practice and policies
Enhance PreK systems

Key Area 2

Examining Availability and Supply of the HBCC Sector

HBCC supports parent choice

Home-based childcare helps ensure all families have access to high-quality care and early learning that meets their needs, preferences, and priorities. Shifts in the supply and availability of HBCC for children and families have been documented across the U.S.

Our team examines some of the factors that contribute to family child care educators’ decisions to enter or leave licensed family child care. Erikson’s research suggests that shifts in the supply of licensed family child care may be driven by multiple challenges including economic pressures, working conditions, and navigating public policies, as well as personal factors that family child care educators may face running a small business in their own homes.

Key Area 3

HBCC Policy Implementation and Navigation

Multiple Systems Lead to Challenges

Policies and systems are often difficult for HBCC providers to navigate and participate in, especially when they participate in multiple systems at once.

Our team works with a variety of partners to understand and provide guidance for:

Informing policy agencies’ support of HBCC providers
Building more efficient systems
Creating more responsive licensing systems
Implementing Family Child Care (FCC) in mixed-delivery PreK systems

2024 Child Care and Development Fund Final Rule

Erikson’s HBCC Policy Impact

Erikson’s research about HBCC networks was referenced in the federal Child Care and Child Development Fund that provides subsidies for almost 1 million working families. Those policies include:

Changes to subsidy rates and payment policies to promote economic well-being for family child care providers
Expansion of access to early care for families who work nontraditional hours across all HBCC settings
Improved governance that includes provider and family voices

View the Final Rule (PDF)

Key Area 4

Home-Based Child Care Networks

Building Supports for HBCC

HBCC Networks are interconnected groups of HBCC practitioners including family child care educators and family, friend, and neighbor caregivers. These groups come together to enhance quality, availability, and sustainability for HBCC. Networks overall are a promising strategy for nurturing HBCC practitioners’ strengths, supporting them through all phases of their careers, and easing the burden of participating in multiple policies and systems.

Our team conducts implementation research with networks to increase knowledge of practitioners’ experiences receiving supports from networks and networks’ implementation and delivery of services.

Explore HBCC Network Tools & Resources

Grow Your Support for HBCC Providers

Erikson Institute includes actionable recommendations for networks through research-to-policy briefs, white papers, frameworks and more. These home-based child care tools and resources can be used by networks to strengthen their supports for providers.

Relationship-Based Support for HBCC Assessment Tool

This tool examines the quality of relationships and interactions between providers and staff.

Benchmarks and Indicators for High-Quality HBCC Networks

This evidence-based framework addresses 11 quality benchmarks for HBCC networks.

Evaluation Toolkit for Networks

This toolkit can help networks assess their own HBCC in six areas.

Tools for Assessing Community Needs for Comprehensive Services and Supports

These tools address supports and resources for health, mental health, and financial independence.

Adrienne Briggs, M.Ed.

Lil’ Bits Family Child Care Home, Family Child Care Advisory Board Member, Erikson Home-Based Child Care Research

“ As a home-based child care owner and educator for over 30 years, Erikson’s HBCC research allows me to share my knowledge and experiences to inform the public that HBCC provides essential services in our homes. My hope is that more research like this can be done allowing HBCC educators to share our voices and positively impact this important profession. ”