The Decline of Family Child Care in Maryland

Nationally, home-based child care, which includes regulated family child care (FCC), is the most common type of non-parental child care for children under the age of five in the U.S. However, the number of regulated FCC providers has declined steadily since 2008, including the number of FCC providers receiving Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds to care for children receiving child care subsidies.[i],[ii] This mixed methods study examined the decline of regulated FCC providers in the State of Maryland. The study aimed to address the following research questions:

• How did the rate of FCC closures change following changes to Maryland’s scholarship[1] policies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic?
• What are the characteristics of FCC providers who stay open (i.e., had an active license) longer?
• Why are Maryland’s FCC providers closing? How do former FCC providers feel about no longer being in business?
• How can Maryland attract and retain FCC providers?

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Footnote

[1] Maryland refers to child care subsidies, funded through the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), as child care scholarships.