A nurse in New Mexico turned a state-backed child care initiative into a home-based program, securing a license and opening her doors within months. The experience highlights how streamlined licensing and support can accelerate the growth of home-based care—a critical but often overlooked part of early childhood education. With demand for affordable infant and toddler care rising, experts argue that expanding these small-scale, community-based models could help fill gaps in the U.S. system. The piece explores why home-based child care remains essential and how policy changes could make it more accessible.
When the state of New Mexico announced it would provide no-cost universal child care last September, Yaneidy Gomez, a nurse, started thinking about starting her own program. New Mexico made it easy: She applied for a child care license in March and by April had passed inspection and welcomed her first family, proving that a […] The post OPINION: Home-based child care is the backbone of America’s infant-toddler care system. We need more of it appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
