ma-early-childhood

New Study Focuses on What Home-Based Child Care Providers Need to Survive

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 20:28:16 GMT

The pandemic made visible the lack of available and affordable child care in the U.S., and families continue to struggle to find care for their children, whether in licensed centers or homes. Massachusetts alone has lost 1,000 home-based child care providers since 2020—directly impacting parents’ ability to work, especially mothers.

And yet, despite the dire state of the field, individuals continue to start their own child care businesses.

Senior Research Scientist Wendy Wagner Robeson , Ed.D., is collaborating with Kimberly Lucas , Ph.D., Professor of the Practice in Public Policy and Economic Justice at Northeastern University, on a study of the experiences of home-based child care providers in Massachusetts in order to better understand which government policies can help them survive and thrive.

With funding from the Massachusetts Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, Robeson and Lucas are conducting a survey and focus groups with those who have become licensed home-based child care providers since 2020 and those who have recently left the field.

We’re asking questions like, why do people decide to become child care providers? Why do they close their businesses? What can the state do to support existing providers and to prevent them from dropping out?

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New website breaks down Massachusetts early childhood systems

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 10:34:48 GMT

With Beacon Hill poised to address the dual challenges of access and costs of early childhood education and care this session, advocates on Thursday launched a new website that aims to give lawmakers, parents and others a better view of the constellation of services and supports for children ages 5 and younger.

The Rennie Center for Education and Research Policy and the Massachusetts Early Childhood Funder Collaborative unveiled Early Childhood 101, an interactive website that maps out all the various ways in which young kids and parents interact with programs and services like health care, housing support, employment assistance and more.

The goal is to “help a larger audience understand where and how to support Massachusetts’ youngest children” and “move the needle for further investment and political focus on coordinating and improving the early childhood ‘non-system.’"

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Businesses band together to boost childcare, early-childhood education

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 10:50:53 GMT

Despite how essential childcare has proven — operating on-site even as many K-12 schools have gone to remote learning — the pandemic has shown how much more investment the system needs. Operators of preschools and daycares say they welcome greater involvement from the business community, not just in terms of public advocacy, but with technical assistance and even their real estate needs.

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