"Getting Organized" Brings Benefits to Child Care Providers, Families, and Children

The movement to authorize home-based child care providers to join unions and negotiate with the state for better compensation and working conditions continues to grow. Unions are organizing both regulated family child care programs (FCC) and "family, friend, and neighbor" (FFN) care providers who are exempt from regulation but serve children receiving child care assistance. This is a promising strategy for improving the treatment of FCC and FFN providers, a poorly paid and overwhelmingly female workforce, and for increasing overall investments in child care.

An update of the National Women’s Law Center’s 2007 report, Getting Organized: Unionizing Home-Based Child Care Providers 2010 Update, finds that since 2007, the number of states authorizing unions to represent home-based child care providers and negotiate with the state on their behalf has doubled from seven to fourteen.

In most states where agreements between the union and the state have been reached, legislatures have approved the funding called for and raised reimbursement rates for home-based providers, and in some states, for child care centers as well. Several states have expanded access to training opportunities and incentives for FCC and FFN providers, increased access to health insurance, and made it more certain that providers will be paid in a timely fashion.

While child care unions have had notable successes on behalf of child care providers, their progress in some states has slowed as the worst recession in decades has taken a heavy toll on state budgets. However, as the Center's report shows, "getting organized" has given home-based child care providers a stronger voice in tough times: winning some significant gains, averting some cuts, securing a role in making the decisions that affect their lives, and highlighting the importance of child care.