A National Portrait of Unlisted Home-Based Child Care Providers: Learning Activities, Caregiving Services, and Children Served
OPRE Brief #2022-292
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Associated Project
Home Based Child Care Supply and Quality
Prepared for:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
Clients
Key Findings
- Compared to other home-based child care (HBCC) providers, unlisted, unpaid providers tended to care for fewer children, more school-age children, and were more likely to provide care during non-standard hours (such as evening, weekday overnight, and weekend hours).
- Unlisted, paid providers often invested considerable time in planning activities for children and on care-related activities outside of directly caring for children, such as communicating with families. Almost one-third provided care in the child’s home, and more than two-thirds reported using community spaces for physical activity and play.
Home-based child care (HBCC) providers—those who provide at-home, nonparental child care—include listed providers, and unlisted providers who do and do not receive payment. Unlisted providers make up 94 percent of the HBCC provider workforce and serve more than 98 percent of all children who receive care in HBCC settings. Yet, research on HBCC lags behind research on center-based child care and early education (CCEE), and the least is known about unlisted providers.
A series of four analysis briefs uses infographics to present a national portrait of unlisted HBCC providers from the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE). The findings can be used to inform supports for unlisted HBCC providers, to guide outreach and engagement of HBCC providers, and to shape future research to better understand unlisted HBCC providers. This brief focuses on how unlisted HBCC providers spend their caregiving time, what kinds of caregiving services they provide, and the characteristics of the children they serve.
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