A Compilation of Initiatives to

Support Home-Based Child

Care

March 31, 2010

Toni Porter Tahra Nichols Patricia Del Grosso Carol Begnoche Rachel Hass Lee Vuong Diane Paulsell

Contract Number:

233-02-0086/HHSP233200700014T

Mathematica Reference Number: 6428-400

Submitted to: Office of Planning, Research and

Evaluation Administration for Children and Families 370 L'Enfant Promenade Seventh Floor West Washington, DC 20447 Project Officer: Ivelisse Martinez-Beck and T'Pring Westbrook

Submitted by: Mathematica Policy Research

P.O. Box 2393 Princeton, NJ 08543-2393 Telephone: (609) 799-3535 Facsimile: (609) 799-0005 Project Director: Diane Paulsell

A Compilation of Initiatives to

Support Home-Based Child

Care

March 31, 2010

Toni Porter Tahra Nichols Patricia Del Grosso Carol Begnoche Rachel Hass Lee Vuong Diane Paulsell

CONTENTS

A COMPILATION OF INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT HOME-BASED CHILD CARE ...................... 1

Introduction .................................................................................................. 1

Purpose of the Compilation ........................................................................... 2

Data Collection Methods .......................................................................... 3 Organization of the Compilation .............................................................. 5

Overview of Initiatives.................................................................................... 6

Types of Initiatives .................................................................................. 6 Variation Across Initiatives ...................................................................... 7

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 11

APPENDIX A: MATRIX OF HOME-BASED CARE INITIATIVES AND SERVICE DELIVERY APPROACHES ......................................................................A.1

APPENDIX B: WIDELY IMPLEMENTED QUALITY INITIATIVES ....................................... B.1

APPENDIX C: INCLUSION OF HOME-BASED CARE PROVIDERS IN STATE \ QUALITY RATING SYSTEMS ............................................................... C.1

APPENDIX D: HEALTH AND SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR HOME-BASED CARE PROVIDERS .............................................................................. D.1

PROFILES:

Alabama ............................................................................................................. P.3

Alaska ................................................................................................................. P.9 Arizona ............................................................................................................. P.13

California .......................................................................................................... P.27Colorado ........................................................................................................... P.57Connecticut ...................................................................................................... P.63Delaware ........................................................................................................... P.85Hawaii ............................................................................................................... P.89Idaho ................................................................................................................ P.99 Illinois ............................................................................................................. P.103 Indiana ........................................................................................................... P.109 Iowa ................................................................................................................ P.113 Kansas ............................................................................................................ P.125 Louisiana ........................................................................................................ P.129 Maine.............................................................................................................. P.133 Maryland ......................................................................................................... P.137

iii

Massachusetts ................................................................................................ P.143 Michigan ......................................................................................................... P.153 Minnesota ....................................................................................................... P.163 Missouri .......................................................................................................... P.187 Mississippi ...................................................................................................... P.193 Nebraska ........................................................................................................ P.203 Nevada ........................................................................................................... P.209 New Hampshire ............................................................................................... P.213 New Jersey ...................................................................................................... P.221 New Mexico .................................................................................................... P.225 New York ........................................................................................................ P.231 North Carolina ................................................................................................ P.249 North Dakota .................................................................................................. P.253 Ohio ............................................................................................................... P.259 Oklahoma ....................................................................................................... P.273 Oregon ........................................................................................................... P.279 Pennsylvania ................................................................................................... P.293 Rhode Island ................................................................................................... P.299 South Dakota .................................................................................................. P.305 Tennessee ...................................................................................................... P.311 Texas.............................................................................................................. P.317 Utah ................................................................................................................ P.325 Vermont ......................................................................................................... P.331 Virginia ........................................................................................................... P.335 Washington..................................................................................................... P.349 Wisconsin ....................................................................................................... P.357 Wyoming......................................................................................................... P.363 Multi States ..................................................................................................... P.367

iv

A COMPILATION OF INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT HOME-BASED CHILD CARE

Introduction

Home-based child careregulated family child care and family, friend, and neighbor care exempt from regulationis a common child care arrangement for many young children in the United States, especially those from low-income families and families of color (Porter, Paulsell, Del Grosso, Avellar, Hass, & Vuong, 2010a). Research also suggests that home-based care may be the predominant form of non-parental care for infants and toddlers (Brandon, 2005). Further, it represents a significant proportion of the child care for children whose families receive subsidies (Child Care Bureau, 2006). Parents use these arrangements for a variety of reasons including convenience, flexibility, trust, shared language and culture, and individual attention from the caregiver.

Regulated family child care has been an issue for research and policy since the 1980s, when states actively began to invest in efforts to expand its supply and improve its quality. In contrast, family, friend, and neighbor child care did not emerge as a focus of research and policy until the mid-1990s, after the enactment of welfare reform. In the past decade, growing recognition of the role that these unregulated settings play in the child care supply has prompted many studies and an increasing number of initiatives that aim to support these caregivers.

Information about the quality of home-based child care is fairly sparse; however, there are more studies of quality in family child care than in family, friend, and neighbor care. Moreover, the available studies vary in their sample sizes, characteristics of caregivers observed, and the observation measures used to assess quality. This variation may account, at least in part, for the mixed picture of quality that emerges from this set of studies. Some research suggests that home-based child care environments are relatively safe, and that caregivers a