What challenges do family child care providers in Massachusetts face?
Key findings from Understanding 'Post- Pandemic' Family Child Care Providers: Survey of New Entrants and Those Who Left the Field
Family child care providers' most important reasons for entering the field:
To be able to work with children (76.5%)
Because child care is important work (74.6%)
Because I am good at caring for children (72.3%)
To be my own boss (66.5%)
To be able to work from home (65.0%)
To be home with my own children (64.6%)
To have a secure job (63.1%)
Many child care providers have a passion for caring for children, and seek to do so while having workplace autonomy and economic mobility for themselves and their families.
Resources child care providers would utilize:
Retirement benefits
68.8%
Business support
61.2%
Disability payments
60.4%
Child care business management software
57.7%
Help with start-up costs
56.9%
Health care benefits
55.8%
Help advertising their program and finding children
53.8%
Program support
50.8%
Professional development
50.8%
Retirement benefits, disability benefits, and business support ranked highest among child care providers' resource needs.
Child care providers would stay in the field longer if they had:
Higher income
62.7%
Retirement benefits
46.9%
More local services and resources to help me run my family child care business
40.8%
More respect for work I do
40.4%
Health benefits
36.9%
A lack of income, benefits, local services, and respect for the field all contribute significantly to the child care field's relatively high turnover rate.
What challenges do family care providers in MA face? Here are some key findings from "Understanding 'Post-Pandemic' Family Child Care Providers", a research study headed by WCW Researcher Dr. Wendy Robeson and Dr. Kimberly Lucas of @nu-policyschool.bsky.social. #ECEC #DevPsy #PedSky #PASky