Building Home-Based Child Care Networks: Research & Resources for the Field

Erikson Institute’s home-based child care research team is partnering with Home Grown to evaluate their Building Comprehensive Networks initiative and to develop evidence-based resources for the field on promising practices around network development and implementation.

This project is funded by Home Grown, in coordination with their Building Comprehensive Networks initiative.

See more research from Erikson Institute on Family Child Care Networks

Publications and Resources

Strengthening HBCC Networks: An Evidence-Based Framework for High Quality

This brief describes 11 quality benchmarks for home-based child care networks. The benchmarks and related indicators articulate standards and operations based on evidence from research and practice. Together, the benchmarks and indicators represent a picture of what a high-quality network strategy can look like.

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Identifying practices and features of high-quality home-based child care networks: A review of the research evidence

This brief presents findings from a targeted literature review on home-based child care (HBCC) networks that support HBCC providers, including regulated family child care (FCC) providers, and/or family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers who are legally-exempt from regulation. The review was conducted to inform the development of the set of benchmarks and indicators for HBCC networks that are described in the companion framework above.

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Webinar: Network Benchmarks and Indicators

On Wednesday, September 14th at 3:00-4:00 Eastern (12:00-1:00 Pacific) Home Grown and the Erikson Institute hosted a session on the newly released Network Benchmarks and Indicators. Together, the benchmarks and indicators represent a picture of what a high-quality network strategy can look like. In this session we explored the 11 quality benchmarks, their development from research and best practice, and potential use cases for administrators, funders, network staff, and supporting organizations.

Panelists for this discussion include:

• Juliet Bromer, Research Professor, Herr Research Center, Erikson Institute
• Marina Ragonese-Barnes, Research Analyst, Herr Research Center, Erikson Institute
• Toni Porter, Early Care and Education Consulting
• Kristy Smith, Associate Director: Home-Based Child Care Team, Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood
• Sara Mickelson, Director, Early Childhood Initiatives Harris County Office of County Administration
• Natalie Renew, Executive Director, Home Grown
• Karen Tylek, Director of Program Operations, Home Grown

WATCH THE RECORDING

Home-Based Child Care Networks: Evaluation Toolkit

The Toolkit includes tools that you can use to collect data to assess your network’s progress towards meeting your goals. It is divided into six areas for evaluation:  1) implementation; 2) provider outcomes; 3) quality outcomes; 4) sustainability outcomes; 5) child outcomes; and 6) family outcomes. Each category includes links to relevant instruments and resources.

DOWNLOAD THE TOOLKIT