More than 90,000 licensed family child care homes closed in the United States between 2005 and 2017. Many families depend on family child care providers to care for their children so parents can work and go to school. With fewer family child care homes, it is harder for families to find and afford child care. In communities without enough child care options, business and economic growth can suffer.
Action is needed to ensure that family child care remains a strong, healthy component of the early childhood education system. This brief examines the reasons family child care homes close and offers information that your state, territory, or tribe can use to solve this problem.