The Finest Baby Care Possibility Could Be Proper Underneath Your Nostril
Adriana Joseph urgently needed childcare.
The New Haven, Connecticut-based COO of a nonprofit and her husband, who works for the government, toured their area’s top daycare for their young daughter. They were impressed with the fingerprint scans, camera feeds in every room, an app to document the children’s feeding, sleeping and diaper changing schedules, and the excellent reputation of the place where many of their colleagues sent their children.
“We thought, ‘These are the things we should have.’ We were in this position we could afford and we thought, ‘This is the best, so we should have the best option,’ ”Adriana said.
Then she found out about a daycare center nearby. It was much cheaper, around $ 1,200 a month compared to $ 2,000 to $ 3,000 for a center. The carers spoke Spanish so that their daughter was bilingual and could communicate with Adriana’s mother, a Mexican. She put her daughter on the waiting list and a place became vacant when the pandemic broke out.
Adriana calls her family daycare center “the family we have here” and feels the quality of care is just as high as in the daycare centers, but “no frills”. She is amazed at how her daughter Andi, now 15 months, has developed. Andi is one of six children in the centre’s infant and toddler program, which is located on one floor of a three-story apartment building; older children are accommodated on a different floor; the top floor is occupied by the couple who run the day care center.
Her colleagues have wondered why she chose the family center over the better known local day care centers. “The cost of childcare is so ridiculous that parents have to sacrifice a lot to send their children to the day care center of their choice,” said Adriana. “But if people had more information about what a daycare home is, it would be a more preferred place to send your child than a big place.”
Understand home care
Home childcare, also known as family-based childcare, is not always understood or appreciated by parents and policy makers, many of whom may view daycare as the gold standard for childcare. Research shows that family-based childcare programs are the main source of childcare for children of color and children from low-income communities – the same families who often have no choice but to have non-traditional work hours, making it harder to find childcare.
Many home centers do not require licenses to operate, and the myriad of government regulations vary widely and provide a patchwork of data on family childcare arrangements, unlike childcare centers which are more easily tracked, measured, and documented.
“There is a bias against family-based care.”
“There’s a bias against family-based care,” said Natalie Renew, director of Home Grown, a national collaboration dedicated to improving quality access to home childcare. “Our mental model of early care and education is based on a school and center-based understanding. It looks very much as if the model was carried over from K-12 to younger children. “
Home childcare bias is important because of the distribution of public funds and subsidies. President Joe Biden has outlined an ambitious target of $ 39 billion to invest in childcare. Traditionally, more federal funding has gone to childcare centers than home centers, and understanding and managing this bias can shape the future of childcare for millions of families.
Around 1.9 million children – only around 14 percent of those entitled – receive childcare subsidies, the use of which is decided by the individual federal states. Many family childcare providers receive grants but are often reimbursed differently than institutional providers, with states generally setting reimbursement rates for home care at lower rates. For example, a license exempt provider may be reimbursed $ 13 per day for caring for an infant, while a childcare center may be reimbursed $ 35 for the same care.
“Our infant and toddler childcare system has a history of racism and exploitation.”
Head Start, a major sponsor of early childhood education for low-income families, cares for over one million children annually. Although the funds can technically be used for home care, according to federal data only 9 percent of Head Start funding goes to people in family childcare, although far more family and home care centers are eligible for funding. Natalie says 50 percent of families would like their children to be looked after in family care, but when trying to get access to a Head Start or public pre-K spot, they may have no choice but to go to a center to go.
A complicated story
Some of the bias towards home childcare can be traced back to a much uglier story. Local day care centers, called “crèches” in the late 19th century, were little more than a room full of children and an adult to look after them while unmarried or widowed mothers worked. Families who could afford it hired a nanny or wet nurse to look after their children, often women of color, often at low wages. When the center model of the preschool was introduced, the founders deliberately set themselves apart from the day-care centers in order to appeal to a middle-class clientele.
“Our infant and toddler childcare system has a history of racism and exploitation,” said Jessica Sager, co-founder and CEO of All Our Kin, a nonprofit that trains, supports, and supports childcare facilities for families, including those of Adriana. “You can take the work of black and brown women with histories of slavery and exploitation and underpay them or pay them nothing,” Jessica said. “This is a very special racist story that leads us to view family childcare work as worthless.”
Different families have different needs
Center-based care facilities thrive in parts of the country with a large concentration of high-income families with more traditional working hours, including large cities and suburbs, which are often the same places where such policies are developed and lobbying begins. However, there are innumerable reasons why a home or family daycare can work better than other options for many families: Parents who have non-traditional working hours or unpredictable schedules cannot always use a center-based model as the centers limited hours work does not suit the family’s working hours.
A center also typically charges fixed tuition fees, while low-income parents working from paycheck to paycheck may have incomes that are too unstable to meet payments. Family providers may be more flexible with payments and working hours, and many develop close ties with the families they care for. Siblings can often stay together at home, which some families may prefer, too. In addition, some parents appreciate the smaller, more homely environment of a family care facility, especially with babies and toddlers.
As discussions about expanding high quality childcare services continue, family daycare centers do not require the cost and staff of a daycare center and can be a more practical solution in childcare deserts and rural areas where there are few opportunities for high quality care.
Childcare policy experts agree that there is room for both options, and the one-size-fits-all approach does not work to make quality childcare available and affordable for all. And, as Adriana noted, quality childcare might look different than she originally expected. It may just take a little more time and effort to find them.
