AUTHORS: Jessica Miguel and Marisa Schlieber, Erikson Institute
September 2025
Policy Analysis
Home-based child care (HBCC) is an essential sector of the child care and early education (CCEE) landscape and includes licensed family child care providers (FCC) as well as unlicensed and license-exempt family, friend, and neighbor providers (FFN). Across the United States, HBCC is one of the most commonly used nonparental child care arrangements for families. Compared with other CCEE settings, HBCC providers more often offer nonstandard hours and flexibility that may support parents’ work schedules and needs. Families that use HBCC report that they value the opportunity for siblings to be cared for together, individualized attention (especially for children with special needs), a personal relationship with the provider who may share the same background, and continuity of care for children from infancy through school-age.