The City of Boston has done it, and it’s working.
If you run a childcare business out of your home, you aren’t just a teacher. You are also a director, administrative assistant, accountant, cook and janitor. Yet you probably don’t pay yourself a salary and aren’t making a profit.[i] That’s right: You could be getting paid nothing to do all these jobs at once, while also shaping young minds at the time that matters most for their lifelong development.[ii]
Within thousands of homes in and around Boston, there is an extensive network of Family Child Care providers (FCCs). These providers, who operate fully out of their primary residences, shoulder almost 20% of the childcare burden in Massachusetts. There are almost 5,000 licensed FCCs in Massachusetts, with the capacity to serve over 40,000 children. In Boston, 90% are women, 61% are women of color, and 44% are immigrants.[iii]
Despite their critical importance in Massachusetts’ mixed-delivery system for early childhood care, most of these family child care providers earn less than minimum wage.[iv] At the same time, early education and care costs in Massachusetts are among the highest in the nation.[v]
Family child care providers are uniquely positioned to meet the needs of families that face the greatest barriers to childcare access. For children from diverse backgrounds, family childcare provides linguistic and cultural continuity between the home and early childhood program which supports social and emotional development.[vi] FCCs are also critical for supporting working families, especially in the most marginalized communities.[vii] For dual-working parent households, FCCs are essential for ensuring parents from these vulnerable communities can make ends meet.
FCCs are also crucial for children’s learning and development. In an interview with WBUR, family care provider Jessica Paselli explained, “I feel like a lot of people think that we just put TV on all day and that’s not what I do in my house…We do meditation, we do yoga, we try to teach these kids [about] empathy, compassion.”[viii]
For all of these reasons, it’s troubling to see how serious the barriers are to the stability and success of family child care providers. Unlike center-based childcare, which typically has organizational staff and support—think administrative assistants or janitors—FCCs serve as both the educator and sole proprietor. Across the country, they must navigate and comply with complex policies and procedures specific to home-based child care yet are not given the tools to operate successfully as a small business.
Regulations and standards often do not honor the home or small business setting and instead require FCCs to fit the mold of center-based care. Fifty-three percent of former FCCs reported leaving the field because of difficult working conditions related to managing a business in their home.[ix] Even if FCCs qualified for federal or state small business support, they may not apply because they don’t know they are eligible.
Boston is trying to change this.
While the Commonwealth is working to solve the broader child care crisis, cities—particularly Boston—are also innovating at the ground level. They recognize that properly supporting FCCs is a critical piece of the puzzle.
Boston’s Office of Early Childhood[x] has recognized that FCCs should be treated like small businesses. With robust backing from Mayor Michelle Wu, they have put both funding and operational support behind this assertion. The goal of the Childcare Entrepreneur Fund[xi] is to help FCCs sustain and grow their business through grant funding, coaching, and business training opportunities.
Boston’s Office of Early Childhood has also laid out a detailed Family Child Care Roadmap[xii] which supports both aspiring and current FCCs in navigating the small business process.The roadmap details ways that FCCs can get support from the city, ranging from business establishment and growth to marketing and design.
Results from this initiative have been promising. In its first two years, the Childcare Entrepreneur Fund trained 20% of the FCC workforce, and the city has continued to fund the program to reach 100 grantees per year, or about 20% of the workforce. An independent evaluation of the pilot program found an increase in participants’ business practice confidence and leadership efficacy.[xiii]
Boston is also piloting innovative ways to support FCC businesses, including passing the Citywide Child Care Zoning Text Amendment[xiv] which eases the path to create FCCs in all neighborhoods of Boston. They have also launched the Family Child Care Incubator,[xv] which provides a short-term shared workspace and access to supplies, equipment, and expertise to support their small businesses.
According to Adam Jones from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, “Giving educators the tools and the opportunity to not only earn in the field, but to grow as professionals, is essential to building and sustaining a robust early education and care workforce.”
The City of Boston is recognizing FCCs as the critical public investment that they are. The rest of Massachusetts, and the country, can learn from Boston’s example.
[i] “‘Cost Estimation Model’ and Family Child Care: What Is Happening?,” National Association for Family Child Care (blog), January 5, 2022, https://nafcc.org/cost-estimation-model-and-family-child-care-what-is-happening/.
[ii] “The First Five Years,” accessed March 29, 2025, https://files.firstthingsfirst.org/why-early-childhood-matters/the-first-five-years.
[iii] “‘Cost Estimation Model’ and Family Child Care.”
[iv] Adam Jones, “Family Child Care Programs: A Primer,” Mass. Budget and Policy Center (blog), December 7, 2023, https://massbudget.org/2023/12/07/fcc-primer/.
[v] “Investment in Early Education and Care: Celebrating Successes, Looking Ahead – TBF,” accessed March 29, 2025, https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/reports/2024/october/investment-in-early-education-and-care-report.
[vi] “NAEYC Position Statement: Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity–Recommendations for Effective Early Childhood Education.,” Young Children 51, no. 2 (1996): 4–12.
[vii] Jones, “Listening Session Remarks to the Early Education and Care Task Force.”
[viii] Ashley Locke, “Family Child Care Is Vital, but Declining. Massachusetts Is Reversing the Trend,” June 24, 2024, https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/06/24/family-child-care.
[ix] Juliet Bromer et al., “Multi-Site Study of Family Child Care Decline and Supply: Examining the Factors Behind the Numbers,” Erikson Institute, accessed March 29, 2025, https://www.erikson.edu/research/multi-site-study-of-family-child-care-decline-and-supply-examining-the-factors-behind-the-numbers/.
[x] “Early Childhood | Boston.Gov,” March 23, 2022, https://www.boston.gov/departments/early-childhood.
[xi] “Childcare Entrepreneur Fund | Boston.Gov,” November 22, 2019, https://www.boston.gov/departments/early-childhood/childcare-entrepreneur-fund.
[xii] “Family Child Care Roadmap | Boston.Gov,” June 6, 2023, https://www.boston.gov/departments/early-childhood/family-child-care-roadmap.
[xiii] Anne Douglass, “PROGRAM EVALUATION FINAL REPORT: Boston Childcare Entrepreneur Fund” (Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation, UMass Boston, February 2021).
[xiv] “Text Amendment No. 464 | Redevelopment Authority | Boston, MA | Municode Library,” accessed April 11, 2025, https://mcclibraryfunctions.azurewebsites.us/api/ordinanceDownload/15398/1261319/pdf.
[xv] sidesea, “Nurtury Announces New FCC Incubator Pilot Program,” Nurtury, May 15, 2023, https://www.nurturyboston.org/2023/05/15/nurtury-launches-new-fcc-incubator/.