Family child care (FCC) is a valuable resource to many children and families. Family child care plays a significant role in meeting families’ needs for care and education, and it may be the form of child care preferred by certain demographics. In this lesson, we will discuss the unique role that FCC providers play in children’s and families’ lives and how, as an FCC coordinator, you can highlight the strengths of this type of care to make it visible to families and future providers.

Creating safe, healthy, and supportive care environments for children is the mission of all quality child care programs. There are rules, regulations, and policies that outline what care programs and providers should and should not do to promote safe, healthy, and developmentally appropriate environments for children and youth. This lesson examines the different systems of oversight and support for family child care (FCC) programs and the key factors that help promote high-quality care in FCC settings. It also outlines some of the reasons that FCC providers choose to become licensed or certified, as well as the onboarding process for new military-affiliated FCC providers.

Building a network of quality family child care (FCC) providers requires a supportive FCC coordinator who can identify prospective providers and help foster connections among new and existing providers. In this lesson, we will address ways to assess the need for recruitment of FCC providers, ideas for marketing the benefits of owning and operating a military FCC home, and common barriers of home-based care for providers that should be addressed in order to build a strong FCC network.

The number of family child care (FCC) homes has steadily decreased over the last ten years. This decline in providers can be a hardship for families, especially those in the military who work nontraditional hours and need extended care options. Therefore, the recruitment and retention of high-quality providers is critical. In this lesson, we will review the factors that keep providers in the field and highlight key strategies for mentoring, supporting, and retaining FCC providers.

The ideas and actions of a Family Child Care (FCC) coordinator inform program culture, which creates the foundation for supporting providers, children, and families. In this lesson, you will learn about the role of the FCC coordinator and how each coordinator contributes to the success of the programs they support. A discussion of the variability in the role, description of relationship-based leadership strategies, and an explanation of the systems and structures that help facilitate the coordinator’s role will be explored. This lesson will focus on how these factors and the organization of each program go hand-in-hand.