Programs that honor these strengths will almost certainly find more success engaging with providers.Дў. Rather than focus on a possible lack of provider education or potential safety challenges, these programs should acknowledge FFN providersвЂ™ strengths, including their accessibility for parents in terms of both hours and location, exceptional child-to caretaker ratios, cultural competency, and community embeddedness. Regardless of setting or style, programs to support FFN providers should be built on respecting FFN providersвЂ™ assets and strengths. Many children in programs like Head Start or Early Head Start are also in FFN care, and these programs could include providers in the same types of outreach they provide for parents. Other early childhood education programs serving low-income populations should also include connections and services for FFN providers. These workshops will be most effective if they are developed specifically for providersвЂ™ home-based environments. They should be supplemented with workshop approaches and targeted distribution of well-developed resources such as literacy kits. These models can be implemented together or separately in a unified program. Evaluations of Play and Learn Groups found increased school readiness, decreased feelings of isolation, improved parent-provider relationships, and increased connection to community resources.

In Play and Learn Groups, providers and children meet in a facilitated group setting that includes play time between the provider and the children in their care. Evaluations have found improved provider mental health, higher-quality interactions with children, increased time spent on literacy activities, better routines, and increased quality on several measures.

These models can adopt a variety of curriculums and provide flexibility to meet the needs of providers. Early childhood professionals pursued home visiting for providers after successful evaluations of parent visiting programs. In a home visiting model, staff from an organization or government agency visit providersвЂ™ homes (or the parent home where the provider is working) to develop a relationship and offer guidance and support, including modeling activities with children. Two successful models are home visiting and Play and Learn Groups. But these trainings are often not effective or attractive for FFN providers, who do not necessarily respond to вЂњprofessional development.вЂќ However, there are evidence-based training approaches that have success improving child care quality in FFN settings. In Michigan and in many states, training provided by the state quality system is designed for licensed providers. Design training systems specifically for FFN providers.

But technical and procedural barriers make it difficult for many FFN providers to prove qualifications, receive payment when they are eligible, and become eligible for higher payment tiers.ДЎ. FFN providers can qualify to participate in the subsidy system, albeit at a very low level. FFN providers face special barriers to participating in the child care subsidy and licensing system.From an equity perspective, resources should be spent supporting providers from varied backgrounds to provide care. Policies related to child care offer little support to FFN providers and are not well designed to meet their needs. Child care policies largely overlook FFN providers.FFN providers also play a crucial role in increasing capacity for infant/toddler care. Besides providing cost-effective and flexible care options, FFN providers are particularly good at meeting family needs such as having a trusting relationship with the provider sharing a cultural background and offering care outside of traditional business hours. Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) child care providers are a valuable part of the child care landscape.Rather than simply pushing families toward licensed care, policymakers and child care professionals should reform the treatment of FFN child care, providing context-appropriate support and training and adequate funding. By excluding these providers, policymakers systematically exclude minoritized communities from important support for care, potentially limiting the quality of available care in these communities. Yet strategies to support child development through quality metrics such as caretaker education easily backfire, exacerbating affordability issues and unnecessarily excluding a class of providers known as Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN).

Federal and state policies have adapted in response to evidence that early childhood development is crucial for life outcomes. By Kelly Wilcox, Toko Oshio, and Jeff Kupperman IntroductionД¬hild care subsidies are essential both for the well-being of families with low incomes trying to make ends meet and for promoting early development and learning for children receiving care.

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