TKW Consulting

Family Child Care Meets Needs of Working Families
WASHINGTON, D.C. ---

Family child care providers are an important support for working parents and meet children’s needs for a safe, healthy and nurturing environment, according to a report released today by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Family child care is defined as child care provided by an adult who may or may not be related to the child, in the adult’s own home and outside the child’s own home.

“Family child care is an option that works best for many families,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade F. Horn, Ph.D. “This report sheds light on the benefits family child care provides to working parents and the factors parents consider when choosing an appropriate child care arrangement.” The report, “Care in the Home: A Description of Family Child Care and the Experiences of the Families and Children Who Use It,” presents findings from the first wave of data collection for the In-Depth Study of Family Child Care, a component of the National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families -- a seven year research effort being conducted in 25 communities in 17 states.

The findings of the report, based on in-depth study of 618 families using family child care and 533 family child care providers, include the following:

• Family child care met several practical considerations of the parents, such as availability of care to cover the parent’s off-hours or irregular work schedules, the costs of care and the convenience of the location;
• About half of the homes provided care for children of all ages – from infants to school-age children – a great help for parents trying to arrange care for more than one child;
• Most parents considered more than one possible care arrangement before selecting family child care. Fewer than 10 percent wanted a different arrangement than the one they were using;
• Safety for their children, the relationship with the provider and trust were among parents’ most compelling reasons for choosing family child care;
• Family child care arrangements are remarkably stable. Most of the children (90 percent) were in a single, full-time child care arrangement and providers in the study had been providing care for an average of seven years; and
• Family child care homes provided safe places for children, close supervision, warmth and responsiveness to children’s needs and environments with little stress or conflict.

The report also notes features of family child care in need of improvement,
including:

• Children in family child care homes could spend more time on activities that promote cognitive and language development. In more than 40 percent of the family child care homes, the television was rarely or never turned off; and in the majority of homes, at least one child was watching television at each study observation point; and
• Reading activities were observed in only 37 percent of the family child care homes.

The study was initiated in the wake of welfare reform legislation enacted in 1996 and prepared by Abt Associates Inc.

View the Executive Summary...

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:56 PM