California Child Care Training

In theory,‭ ‬quality infant care might take place in either a center or family child care home.‭ ‬Whether or not it is,‭ ‬in fact,‭ ‬quality care in either setting will depend greatly on small group size,‭ ‬small numbers per room and access to a stable and sensitive primary caregiver.‭ ‬These are the characteristics that have typically been associated with family child care.‭ ‬But,‭ ‬two developments have possibly had a negative impact on infant care in family child care homes.‭

One development is the rising popularity of center care for two,‭ ‬three and four year olds.‭ ‬I fear that more family child care providers are caring for larger numbers of infants in their group.‭ ‬They are ever more tempted to exceed their infant capacities as older children become less available.‭ ‬I know that family child care homes that comply with infant limits usually need to enroll non-infants,‭ ‬too,‭ ‬in order to make a living.‭

The other development that has probably had a negative impact on FCC infant care is the CalWORKS capacity development push.‭ ‬Some of the potential benefits offered in family child care‭ (‬small group size,‭ ‬stable caregivers‭) ‬were compromised.‭ ‬Providers were encouraged to expand their capacity from small to large family child care.‭ ‬Unfortunately,‭ ‬the staff turnover in large family child care homes seems to be very high and this does not promote quality care,‭ ‬especially for infants.‭ ‬Also,‭ ‬many large family child care homes cannot afford to pay for quality staff.‭ ‬As family child care advocates and children's advocates,‭ ‬we should be seeking remedies to these problems.

I once asked a Universal Preschool Task Force member whether centers would be prepared to take on infant care after family child care homes failed to thrive when older children stopped coming.‭ ‬It seems that,‭ ‬in spite of the high cost of providing infant care,‭ ‬more and more centers are,‭ ‬indeed,‭ ‬willing to take on this group.‭ ‬I worry,‭ ‬now,‭ ‬that infants are receiving care in ever more expensive and larger and noisier and more impersonal groups with more available sets of germs.‭ ‬I hope that infant centers will make every effort to keep down the number of infants per room.‭

Both centers and family child care homes must face and overcome their special challenges if infants are to receive the best possible care in out of home settings.