Understanding the State and Local Role in Home-Based Child Care

High-quality child care is essential to the success of families and economies, and state and local leaders play an important role in ensuring this care is affordable, responsive and accessible to working families. A 2023 report found that 85 percent of primary caregivers said problems with child care hurt their efforts or time commitment at work. The lack of access to infant-toddler child care alone costs the nation $122 billion in lost earning, productivity and revenue every year.

Home-based child care (HBCC) is a key part of the child care system and is often a family’s top choice. Parents currently utilizing HBCC report high rates of satisfaction with their child care arrangement and 65 percent would continue to choose for their child to be cared for in a home-based setting, even if child care were free and available in a convenient location.

Each level of government has a role to play in supporting families and the child care providers that serve them. Particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local governments have been investing in increasing the supply and quality of child care. To showcase these efforts and share lessons learned, the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and Home Grown have partnered to create a series of issues briefs.

These resources are designed to help state and local policymakers better understand the unique strengths of home-based child care and the challenges facing these providers. The briefs also provide examples of how states, counties and cities are thinking creatively about ways to support and invest in home-based providers and the families they serve.

Primer: Understanding the State and Local Role in Home-Based Child Care

This primer provides an introduction to the unique strengths of home-based child care and shares themes that emerged from this research project, including the importance of intergovernmental coordination and engaging providers in decision-making.

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Creating Economic Opportunity for Providers

Home-based providers face many challenges in operating a small business. This brief shares how state and local governments can promote economic stability and well-being for providers and their businesses by investing in networks and shared service alliances that connect providers to new resources and leveraging authority to reduce regulatory and financial barriers for providers.

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Compensation and Benefits

Home-based providers often struggle to make ends meet and face high rates of food and housing insecurity. This brief shares how state and local governments can explore ways to increase compensation for providers and offer new benefits, such as student loan forgiveness and support for child care, housing and transportation costs.

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Family, Friend and Neighbor Care

Family, friend and neighbor (FFN) caregivers are a key but often unacknowledged part of the child care system. This brief shares how state and local governments are supporting high-quality child care environments in FFN settings by engaging with and providing resources to these caregivers.

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Infant and Toddler Care

The majority of infants and toddlers are served in home-based care, but providing care to this age group can be more expensive for providers. This brief showcases how state and local governments are increasing child care supply for infants and toddlers by providing incentives and offering funds and resources to build provider capacity to serve very young children.

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