New Jersey Family Child Care Landscape Report

Early childhood care and learning experiences play a crucial role in infant and toddler development. Family child care—small, home-based child care businesses—play a particularly important role in educating our youngest children, especially among New Jersey families. Registered family child care programs serve about 10,000 families annually. They fill a unique and critical need for families facing the greatest barriers to care, including those working non-traditional hours, in a state in which 66% of households with children under 3 have all parents in the workforce.

But what family child care options—one of the state’s least regulated forms of child care—are available for New Jersey families, especially for those in low-income communities? And how can we best support and expand this form of care so that all New Jersey children and families have access to the early care and education they need and deserve?

These questions are what drove The Burke Foundation, along with several other funders, to spearhead a landscape report around the state of family child care in New Jersey led by All Our Kin, an organization that is transforming and professionalizing the field of family child care.

All Our Kin (AOK) is a nationally-recognized nonprofit that trains, supports, and sustains family child care providers. Rooted in over two decades of experience in the field, AOK’s transformative model has been shown to increase the quality, supply, and sustainability of family child care in the community and positively impact the local economy, all while helping children build the foundation for lifelong learning and future success.

The AOK landscape report highlighted the opportunities and challenges around family child care in New Jersey. While there are exciting efforts underway to strengthen family child care in the state, many Nw families struggle to secure reliable and affordable care. Family child care programs are closing, unable to sustain in an environment in which increased program requirements are not coupled with increased compensation, support, and investment. The report also noted the large disparity in child care supply and demand and shared data around the number children receiving care through home-based arrangements that are not publicly monitored for compliance or quality. The report concluded with recommendations aimed at helping New Jersey create the conditions necessary for family child care, and the children and families it serves, to thrive.

The crucial insights gained from this report are informing our work at The Burke Foundation and early childhood funders as we explore the best ways to support high-quality child care options for New Jersey.

Funding for the All Our Kin New Jersey Family Child Care Landscape Report was made in conjunction with The Nicholson Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation, The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation, and the Turrell Fund.