Starting a Family Child Care Business
Tips for Providers
Providing family child care is a wonderful career. It’s also a difficult, demanding and complicated job. And it’s a serious commitment: When you care for children in your home, their safety, health, happiness and development are your responsibility.
Ask Yourself:
- Am I willing to make changes in my home to meet licensing requirements?
- Am I well organized, able to keep detailed and accurate business records and financial accounts?
- How will my family and I feel about having parents and children in our home from early morning until evening, every day?
- Do I enjoy spending time with children, helping them grow and learn?
- Do I have the patience, energy, and flexibility to deal in a positive way with a range of different children’s needs, all day, every day?
- How will I deal with challenges, such as children with aggressive behavior or parents who don’t pay or pick up children on time?
- Can I develop positive relationships with a variety of families and children including those with cultures very different from mine?
- Am I interested in learning more about child development?
- What are my local zoning requirements and can I legally operate a child care in my home?
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Spending every day alone with children can be isolating. You will benefit in many ways from getting together with other family child care providers to share experiences, swap information and ideas, and give each other emotional support.
We can help get you connected!
GET STARTED AT COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS FOR CHILDREN!
Our Provider Specialist can assist you with all aspects of providing family child care. We also have training programs that cover several start-up topics including:
- Licensing requirements and inspections
- Business practices, contracts, record keeping, and taxes
- Low-cost ways to set up your environment
- Caring for infants and toddlers
- Health & Safety requirements
- Developmentally Appropriate Practices
- Professionalism
- Family Engagement
- Curriculum and program planning
For more information, call Barb Green at (717) 515-0407 or email bgreen@cccforpa.org
