Home-Based Childcare

Home-based child care—both regulated family child care as well as family, friend, and neighbor care that is exempt from regulation—accounts for a significant proportion of the child care supply in the United States. Our work in this area has focused on improving quality and developing quality assessment measures.

Supporting Quality in Home-based Child Care. Funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, this two-year project gathered existing research on home-based care and caregiver-supporting initiatives. In addition, the project sought to synthesize evidence about home-based care, and propose promising directions for designing and evaluating initiatives to improve quality in these settings. With our partner, Mathematica Policy Research, we produced four reports:

• A Review of the Literature on Home-Based Child Care: Implications for Future Directions;
• A Compilation of Initiatives to Support Home-based Child Care;
• Supporting Quality in Home-based Child Care: A Compendium of 23 Initiatives; and
• Supporting Quality in Home-Based Child Care: Initiative Design and Evaluation Options.

The Child Care Assessment Tool for Relatives. In a five-year project, supported in large part by the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation, Bank Street researchers developed the Child Care Assessment Tool for Relatives (CCAT-R), an observation instrument for assessing quality in child care provided by relatives.

• Assessing Quality in Family, Friend and Neighbor Child Care: The Child Care Assessment Tool for Relatives, (search by author, Toni Porter). The CCAT-R has been used in several evaluations, including the Early Head Start Enhanced Home Visiting Project and Community Connections.

Bank Street offers training on the CCAT-R. Contact Toni Porter, tporter@bankstreet.edu.

Studies on Family, Friend and Neighbor Child Care. Bank Street has conducted several seminal studies on this issue. Among the papers on this topic are:

• Neighborhood Child Care: Family, Friends, and Neighbors Talk About Caring for Other People’s Children, a qualitative study of caregivers’ interests and needs;
• Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care: Crib Notes on a Complex Issue, a synthesis of research findings;
• Assessing Initiatives for Family, Friend, and Neighbor Child Care: An Overview of Models and Evaluations, which was commissioned by Research Connections;
• Lessons Learned: Strategies for Working with Kith and Kin Caregivers, a report on implementation of programs for kith and kin caregivers; and
• Doting on Kids: Understanding Quality in Kith and Kin Child Care, findings from focus groups with caregivers about perceptions of quality in the care that they provide to children.

All of these papers are available at Research Connections. Search by author, ‘Toni Porter.’