Staffed family child care networks train, support, and sustain family child care (FCC) educators, and provide them with a hub for connection, resource-sharing, and professional learning. In our work with technical assistance partners across the country, we encounter networks that are building on these essential services by expanding access to and awareness of healthcare, health insurance, and retirement plans — benefits that are vital parts of fair pay.
Too many early educators go without benefits, and FCC educators are hit hardest, as unstable and razor-thin revenue margins often make benefits unaffordable. Networks are working to close the gap with innovative offerings and partnerships to better support the FCC workforce.
Many Family Child Care Educators Lack Health Insurance
Nationwide, family child care educators are among the lowest earners. As small business owners who are self-employed, family child care educators often do not have access to employer-sponsored health coverage.
National data from 2019 show that among all listed family child care educators, only about 5 percent had access to employer-sponsored health insurance, while the rest cobbled together coverage through a spouse, public health plans, purchasing private insurance, or some combination thereof. Eight percent had no health insurance at all.
Family Child Care Networks Use Innovative Strategies to Boost Benefits & Pay
Here are some of the ways that networks are supporting family child care educator access to benefits and increased compensation:
Telehealth Supports for Family Child Care Educators
- Oklahoma’s Thrive Network initiated a free telehealth pilot, which is now available for all early childhood providers in the state. The program includes a discounted prescription card and unlimited telehealth visits.
- Colorado’s Staffed Family Child Care Network is launching a 2-year benefits pilot for educators in their networks, which will include access to 10 mental health visits with a licensed therapist, access to a psychiatrist with discounts for prescriptions, and urgent telehealth visits.
Resources for Health Insurance and Retirement
- First Up in Philadelphia holds resource fairs and brings community speakers in to host conversations about benefits like health insurance and retirement with educators.
Direct Cash Payments
- All Our Kin’s own New York arm is involved with the Thriving Providers Project (TPP), an initiative of Home Grown and Coleman Family Ventures that works with regional partners to provide direct cash payments to Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers and licensed FCC providers. AOK NY participated as a TPP pilot site, providing fifty Bronx-based educators with $1,000 a month for 18 months. Participating educators reported that the direct cash payments made it easier to cover the costs of basic needs (food, housing, medical care, and utilities), pay off debt, and deal with fluctuations in income.
Benefits and Fair Compensation
- The Kansas City FCC Network (who have built their network with TA support from AOK) co-created family child care policy agendas with educators on their advisory council. The agendas include access to benefits like healthcare and retirement, as well as increased compensation, as two priority areas for policymaker action.
Business Training & Coaching
- As part of the nearly 100 organizations who have been trained to offer All Our Kin’s Business Series, Colorado, First Up, Maryland Family Network, Nebraska, and Kansas City networks offer the Business Series as a strategy to support increasing educator compensation through training and coaching on topics like tax preparation, recordkeeping, risk management, and insurance. While increased subsidy rates are critical, business supports help educators increase the profitability of their programs.
Staffed family child care networks can be a space for innovative strategies to support family child care access to compensation and benefits. As a dedicated support system for family child care educators, networks are also able to hear directly from educators about their needs and can play a critical role in collecting input and feedback about new initiatives or programs.
As states look to bolster their investments in the early childhood workforce, utilizing networks as existing infrastructure to build out comprehensive benefits, wage scales, or career lattices may be a worthwhile strategy.