AUTHORS: Juliet Bromer, Marisa Schlieber, and Rena Hallam
July 2025
HBCC Research Essentials Toolkit: Fact Sheet
Home-based child care (HBCC) is the most common nonparental child care arrangement in the United States and an essential part of the child care and early education (CCEE) landscape in the United States.1 HBCC is a broad term that references licensed, license-exempt, and unlicensed nonparental child care providers who offer care in residential and homelike settings, which may include a provider’s and/or child’s home.i This type of care may also be referred to as family child care or family, friend, and neighbor care. Specific terminology may vary for HBCC depending on funding source, policy context, state or locality, and relationship of a provider to children in care. Including the broad array of HBCC settings in state and local mixed-delivery, early-childhood systems can expand child care options available to families and may support families in choosing the best early care and educational setting for their children.