About FCC

About Family Child Care

"Research shows that opportunities in the early years matter for success in school and in life, and family child care providers like IFCCA members are leading the way.

Family child care is the work of child care provided in a professional caregiver’s home. Across the country, family child care homes provide high-quality programs for infants and toddlers, preschoolers, school age, and children with special needs.

Building the supply of high-quality family child care is essential for families, for communities, and for expanding early learning opportunities for young children."

Across the state of Iowa roughly 305,000 children under the age of 5 are in child care. Nearly 34,000 are in family child care settings.

There are approximately 3,600 providers caring for children in a home-based setting. "The supply of licensed family child care is declining when it should be rising to meet the needs of working families and the urgency of early learning opportunities for young children.

Where policy opportunities permit, family child care providers partner with [statewide voluntary preschool programs] to deliver publicly-funded preK and participate in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. Family child care programs enroll families who pay with assistance (subsidy), and support families who are often challenged to find high-quality, reliable child care, including those in need of care in “nontraditional” work hours and in rural communities."

The IFCCA is part of a network of associations as an affiliate of the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) who "is the only professional association dedicated specifically to promoting high-quality early childhood experiences in the unique environment of family child care programs."