Family child care (FCC) plays a big role in meeting families’ early care and education needs, and is important for states, territories, and tribes topromote access to high-quality FCC options. This tool provides a framework for assessing local, regional, and state policies and practices to ensure they support access to high quality FCC options.
It can assist states, territories, and tribes in:
- Exploring whether they have the infrastructure needed to pursue FCC quality and supply strategies.
- Examining policies that various systems can use to promote high-quality FCC, including licensing and monitoring, quality rating and improvement systems, professional development systems, and the child care subsidy system.
- Reviewing existing efforts to support FC, such as existing FCC networks, hubs, home visiting programs, and partnerships with early learning programs.
- Assessing whether they have the outreach strategies needed to support a diverse group of FCC providers.
- Identifying priorities, goals, and next steps, based on findings from earlier portions of the tool.
