ILEarlyChildhoodCollab.org | FFN Guidebook: Care

Family, friends & neighbor care is child care provided by family, friends and neighbors for other family friends and neighbors children. In Illinois, license-exempt, legal family child care is someone known to the family and includes:

Relative care
Neighbors/friends care

In these environments, child care is provided in the home of the child or in the home of a relative, friend or neighbor. Based on Illinois child care licensing standards, relatives or friends may care for up to three (3) children under the age of twelve (12), including their own, unless all children are from the same household, without being licensed. Family, friend & neighbor providers serving children who receive subsidized child care cannot have been convicted of a crime, must self-certify that they meet certain health & safety criteria, and must complete a CANTS check through the Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System for abuse and/or neglect.

State and local policy makers who are responsible for child care subsidies in Illinois face difficult decisions as they determine how to allocate child care subsidies to support “parental choice”, meet child care needs through maintaining and building the child care supply, and improving overall quality of early care and education. Since parents typically look for child care close to home due to transportation and travel time, this type of informal care may offer the most convenient arrangement, especially in low-income and rural communities. Parents who work rotating shifts or during evening/weekend hours may be more inclined to use this type of care because their work hours do not conform to the normal business hours of child care centers or licensed homes.

Parents must combine work and child care, and the compromises many of these families must make becomes clear. Although low-income families’ reliance on relatives/friends for child care may reflect their most preferred choice, it may also reflect the only available option given financial, scheduling, and other constraints that affect their lives.

A study completed by the National Center for Children in Poverty (1999) “Patterns and Growth of Child Care Voucher Use by Families Connected to Cash Assistance in Illinois and Maryland” shows that:

In January 1998, most subsidized children in Illinois used informal child care arrangements-41% in relative care and 25% in-home care.
During 1997, most school-age care was provided in the homes of family, friends or neighbors.
Families with three or more children were more likely to use family, friends and neighbor care than smaller families.

This is still true today in Illinois. Based on September 2001 child care subsidy data, 63.9% of children enrolled in full day and 71% enrolled in part day subsidy care are using this type of child care arrangement. Parents give various reasons for selecting family, friend & neighbor care rather than licensed child care arrangements.

Cost
Long waiting list
Overall shortage in the supply of child care center slots
Shortage of infant/toddler slots
Finding licensed care within a reasonable distance from their home
Lack of licensed facilities offering child care services during non-traditional hours
Flexibility when parents work rotating shifts
If there are more than 2-3 children in the family, it is easier to have one provider.

A parent’s choice of child care arrangement is directly influenced by its impact on their work lives. Many parents find the flexibility of this type of care an advantage when it comes to changing work and/or school schedules.

Cultural issues also play a significant role in parents’ selection of family, friends and neighbor child care. Some parents feel that young children are safer with family members. Having a relative as a provider also brings income into the family. Many parents place high value on having their child cared for by someone they know, rather than by a stranger. Parents feel more secure because these providers are a member of the extended family/community and they believe they will give their child more individualized attention. Parents may also feel that caregivers have the same values and share the same beliefs that they do, therefore their children are receiving consistent messages.

Paula Sue does not work outside the home because she has three (3) children of her own under five years of age. Paula Sue takes her children to the local library for the children’s activities and enjoys making things with them at home. Recently, her cousin Pat asked her if she would take care of her newborn when she returns to work in two weeks. Pat has applied for subsidized child care but has been unable to find anyone to care for her baby in the evenings when she returns to work at a local restaurant. Pat also does not want to leave her newborn with a stranger and likes the way Paula Sue takes care of her own children. Pat tells Paula Sue that she is applying for subsidized child care and if approved, the money would be paid directly to Paula Sue by the state. Paula Sue agrees to fill out the paper work and keep the baby when Pat returns to work.

This example is just a snapshot of what occurs when family members are asked to provide child care for other family members as parents are returning to the workforce. Because the State of Illinois supports parental choice for parents in selecting appropriate child care arrangements, Pat feels relieved that she will be leaving her baby with someone she knows. As a relative caregiver, Paula Sue views herself as a babysitter and is motivated to help out her relative. Although she has neither completed any formal training nor had any experience other than being a parent herself, Paula Sue realizes that her children enjoy active learning and interacting with other children.

Could Paula Sue benefit from formal training? Would she take advantage of training and resources if they were offered to her?

We will look at some strategies that could be adopted by communities that would support child caregivers like Paula Sue. These strategies can be implemented by Head Start programs, local community organizations, faith based organizations, child care centers, associations and/or schools. By using creative, innovative methods, communities can reach out to these providers to strengthen and enhance the quality of child care services they are providing as well as to help ensure children’s development and safety.

According to a study by the Families and Work Institute, there are several assumptions and misconceptions that the general early care and education community has about this type of child care.

Relative caregivers have little interest in improving the quality of care they are providing. From the study we learn that, although many of these caregivers provided care to help out the parent, they still wanted training on child development.

Care by a relative, friend or neighbor is consistently substandard in quality compared to care offered by other types of caregivers. This same study shows that over half the child care by relatives occurs in the child’s own home. It was found that the health and safety violations were the same as might appear in a typical home. It also found that 92% of the children observed were clean and well cared for physically.

The same recruitment and training approaches used for increasing the number of regulated family child care providers will work with family, friend and neighbor caregivers. The study provided no significant findings on different strategies to support these caregivers. However, when programs were adapted and efforts were made to reach out to and support them without the explicit goal of making them licensed, they were much more effective.

Most families who use relative care do so because they lack knowledge about the benefits of formal child care options. The study indicates that parents’ use of family, friend and neighbor care may have more to do with its flexibility to fit scheduling needs than with any other factor. Parents who depend on relatives for child care had a low degree of family flexibility, because most were single parents without other adults to share work/family responsibilities, but they had a high degree of caregiver flexibility.