California Early Care and Education Workforce Study [CPPT, Section 3o]

California Early Care and Education Workforce Study: Licensed Child Care Centers and Family Child Care Providers

This report presents the results of First 5 California’s 2004 statewide and regional study of the early care and education (ECE) workforce in licensed family child care. The goal of the study was to collect information on the characteristics of this workforce (i.e., educational background and potential need and demand for professional development). In California, more than 50,000 licensed family child care providers and paid assistants care for approximately 250,000 children, mostly in mixed-age groups. Family child care homes make up 36 percent of all licensed child care spaces. In California, the typical licensed family child care provider is a woman of color in her mid-forties who has been taking care of children in her home for an average of 9.5 years. Compared to women in the California labor force overall, licensed family child care providers are less likely to be younger than 30 years and more likely to be over 55 years. They are also more likely to have attended college and/or completed a two-year college degree. Data are presented for California’s family child care providers (i.e., gender and age, ethnic background, linguistic background, and tenure). Only a handful of providers have participated in non-credit training or have completed college coursework focused on dual-language learning in young children, despite the growing numbers of young children who speak a language other than English in their homes. Many more providers are trained to work with children with special needs.

This document is part of the California Preschool Planning Toolkit.