Title: What is Family Child Care? Your Guide to Home-based Early Education
Headings: What Is family child care?
What Is family child care?
How family child care works
Why so many names?
The benefits of family child care
Is family child care right for me?
Choosing the best care for your child

Content: Licensing requirements for caregiver qualifications vary from state to state. You won’t typically see a particular type of curriculum dictated by a state licensing agency, but you will see family child care programs programs based on different philosophies. You can find family child care built around the philosophies of Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, forest school, and others. Each state has its own definition of when a program needs to attain a child care license versus when a program can operate as license-exempt. A licensed program will have to meet particular requirements and pass an inspection process to be sure their home is safe for children. At Wonderschool, we expect providers to stay in compliance with their state licensing requirements whether they are a family child care program or center-based program. You can read more about the Wonderschool Quality and Safety Vision here. Why so many names? Because family child care programs are regulated by each individual state, there are many different legal and colloquial terms for them. For example, there’s…
In-home preschool
In-home daycare
Home daycare
Group family daycare
Family daycare
Home preschool
…and more.