By María Hernández, You Zhou, Sandra Saldaña, and César Zuñiga
After a decade of working as a food service supervisor in a hospital, Adrienne was ready for a change. She had always loved children and decided to begin caring for them in her home. She entered the early childhood education field with a high school diploma but quickly learned that being a family child care provider is not casual work. It requires skill, growth, and constant learning. She went back to school and has now obtained a master’s degree in early childhood education.
“I came into the field with a high school diploma,” she says. “The children made me go back to get more education.”
Today, Adrienne cares for and educates six children, infancy to age 5, in her Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home. She continues to build her skills through professional development as she guides children through some of the most important years of their development. This includes upholding her professional identity in a field where home-based providers are too often unseen or undervalued.
“I’m not sitting here as [some] would think, babysitting,” she says. “I sit here, and I educate [children]. Yes, it’s in a small program. But it’s a small program purposely by choice.”
Across the United States, families are working to find early childhood education that is safe, affordable, and reliable. At the same time, providers are working to implement quality practices, stay staffed, and keep their programs open. In Pennsylvania, where the educators highlighted in this article live and work, thousands of early childhood staffing positions remain unfilled, and families report that finding high-quality programs to meet their needs is a persistent challenge.
Home-based or family child care is part of the solution to this dilemma. These providers offer care and education in their homes, often operating beyond a typical eight-hour day. This flexibility allows them to serve families with wide-ranging contexts and realities. But it can also create barriers that make professional learning—a cornerstone of growing as an early childhood practitioner—difficult. Challenges include long workdays, limited access to coaching, uneven funding for training, and professional isolation.
Still, many family child care providers have a steady commitment to professional growth. They want to learn about new teaching strategies, deepen their understanding of child development, and strengthen how they partner with families.
We (the authors) are a team of interdisciplinary researchers from ParentChild+, an early childhood home visiting organization for under-resourced families and providers. We are committed to supporting family child care educators, particularly those from historically marginalized communities. This includes providing opportunities to access professional development that is continuous, collaborative, and connected to practice. In this article, we discuss the importance of professional development to an educator’s career growth, then share the voices of home-based providers who participated in a recent professional development series sponsored by United Way. They reflect on their continuous learning and describe the supports they need to grow as professionals. We end with suggestions for early childhood leaders, coaches, and policymakers on ways to help family child care providers access meaningful professional development.
Ongoing professional development is essential to build and advance the knowledge and skills that educators need for the lifespan of their careers. This may include training and technical assistance; observation and feedback from professional learning communities; or mentoring, coaching, and other forms of job-related assistance.
Besides advancing educators’ knowledge, continuous learning can also address issues of equity. As outlined in NAEYC’s position statement on developmentally appropriate practice, ongoing professional development can effectively prepare and support educators to reflect on and address any bias in their work. It helps them plan and implement developmentally appropriate, equitable practices for every child.
While professional development is often considered part of center- or school-based programs, it’s essential for all early childhood educators. Professional development tailored to home-based educators prioritizes their voices, builds on their strengths, and allows them to apply new knowledge and skills in real time.
In the stories that follow, family child care practitioners describe how professional development helped them grow. They share how it sparked their learning, strengthened their practice, and shows up in their daily interactions with children and families.
When Deborah opened her family child care program almost two decades ago, she didn’t have formal training in child development. A former mental health professional, she switched to early childhood education to work more directly with children and families. However, she soon found that caring deeply about children wasn’t the same as supporting their development with intention.
This realization prompted Deborah to seek training, ask questions, and keep building her knowledge as an educator. One of the mentors she connected with via Head Start suggested accessing the low- and no-cost professional development opportunities offered by United Way. “She was watching me interact with one of my children,” Deborah recalls, “and she said, ‘You know your benefit for going down to United Way [is] they have these nice classes, one dealing with trauma.’ ”
Over time, Deborah deepened her learning about trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices as well as children’s waves of development. Her goal was to ensure that the children in her care felt emotionally safe, affirmed, and supported.
Today, Deborah considers professional learning to be something that extends beyond her program. She looks for partnerships that will strengthen quality and support families, such as a monthly autism support group she helped organize at a local library. Her story reflects a mindset we hear from many providers: There is always something new to learn because children and families deserve our best.
Angie began her 30-year career in early childhood education by learning on the job. Her journey reflects her deepening understanding of the importance of hands-on learning. When she started caring for children in her home, she initially relied on television programs like Sesame Street for educational material. She developed her skills and knowledge through networking and by seeking her Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential. She was also offered a scholarship through T.E.A.C.H. to continue her education.
These opportunities allowed Angie to gain access to training and mentorship that helped strengthen her skills. She now sees her role as an educator more clearly and approaches learning experiences with intention. “We went from doing the education with them on the TV to doing hands-on education and intentional teaching,” she says (although she adds that technology can be used intentionally for educational purposes).
As her learning expanded, Angie’s approach to the concept of school readiness broadened. Rather than focusing solely on early literacy or early math lessons, she now helps children build independence, social competence, and empathy too. She supports social and emotional skills during daily routines, spontaneous interactions, and hands-on experiences where children explore, touch, and talk about what they’re learning. She works to create an environment where children feel seen: Angie looks for books and materials that reflect the lives of the Black and Brown children she teaches—an experience she did not have growing up as a Black woman.
Audre has been a family child care educator for more than 20 years. Early in her career, she worked long days and had limited access to professional development. But over time, she built routines that made her work more sustainable. “When I first started out, I think I [worked] 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and someone said ‘That is too long. You got to break that up.’ ”
Professional development opportunities helped Audre learn the value of reflection. She began creating a series of handbooks to capture what she was learning as an educator: Practices that worked, ideas she wanted to try, and principles she wanted to live by as her program grew. One of these was balancing child-guided and adult-guided experiences. “I give [children] choices all the time,” she says. “‘Tell me what you want to do today.’”
Audre’s handbooks are living documents that help her learn from her daily experiences. “Just like every day is a new day,” she says, “there is something new every day.”
Shar’ron didn’t plan to work in early childhood education. But when she lost her job following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she began teaching preschool in her home. Over time and through professional development, she discovered that early childhood education was meaningful and a place where she could build a clear purpose. She began taking training in trauma and diversity; she continues to seek opportunities to expand her knowledge about cultural and racial diversity.
Shar’ron believes that strong practice requires a personal teaching philosophy, or set of beliefs to guide everyday decisions. For her, that philosophy is grounded in social and emotional development and early literacy: When children can identify their feelings, express themselves, and feel safe in relationships, she says, they are better prepared to engage in learning. Reading can help them build emotional understanding and confidence.
Serena agrees. Her path to home-based early childhood education began as she cared for her daughter and other children in her family. Early on, her work focused mostly on the alphabet, numbers, and writing names. But thanks to her growing experience and professional development, she began to understand how emotional safety, play, conversation, and open-ended questions contribute to children’s development.
For Serena, success is no longer measured solely by whether children can recite letters or write their names. She prioritizes helping children manage and express feelings in healthy ways (like naming emotions and practicing calming strategies) and strives to create a calm, nurturing environment where children can learn without fear. She asks open-ended questions during play and routines (“What do you think will happen if . . . ?”; “How could we solve that?”). She also uses books as a bridge between literacy and social and emotional learning.
“Advancing Well-Being for Family Child Care Educators,” by Erika Vidal and colleagues. Educating Young Children, Summer 2025. The authors outline several low- and no-cost ways that family-based practitioners can take care of themselves.
“Creating Quality in Family Child Care Settings: A Reflection,” by Maria Wynne. Young Children, 2024. The author, a family child care director, owner, and educator in Indiana, shares how her commitment to professional growth helped her develop a high-quality home-based setting.
“‘We Are That Resilience’: Building Cultural Capital Through Family Child Care,” by Juliet Bromer and colleagues. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 2024. The authors examine the assets that family child care providers of color bring to the profession.
“Mind the Gap: Addressing Child Care Inequalities for Children and Caregivers,” by Juliana Pinto McKeen. Columbia Social Work Review, 2021. This article examines the systemic challenges that impact Black and Brown families and educators.
The Essentials: Providing High-Quality Family Child Care, by Marie L. Masterson and Lisa M. Ginet. NAEYC, 2018. This book provides information that family child care providers need to run a successful program that welcomes children and families.
“Undervalued: A Brief History of Women’s Care Work and Child Care Policy in the United States,” by Julie Vogtman. National Women’s Law Center, 2017. This brief history of child care in the United States traces the persistent denigration of the work performed by women, especially women of color.
The family child care providers featured in this article are trusted educators who have cared for children across generations and built deep relationships with families and communities. Yet their stories reflect a common reality: These practitioners often work within systems that undervalue their expertise, even as they intentionally support children and partner with families every day.
What stands out across these stories is persistence in learning. These educators sought training, engaged in reflection, and created learning environments that reflect children’s identities and experiences.
Professional development is key to family child care providers’ continuous growth. Following are recommendations for ways that early childhood leaders, coaches, and policymakers can ensure that these educators have access to meaningful learning opportunities.
Meet providers where they are. Professional development should be responsive to family child care providers’ unique needs. This may mean providing learning opportunities in educators’ homes. In addition, flexible scheduling, culturally and linguistically appropriate materials, and attention to providers’ personal circumstances can reduce barriers to participation and create more meaningful experiences.
Offer flexible, mixed training methods. Professional development should combine in-person coaching, online learning, peer communities, and hybrid training formats. These multiple methods allow providers to participate despite demanding schedules, transportation barriers, and a variety of technology platforms.
Introduce integrated early childhood policies. Sustained funding and investment in the adults who care for children across all settings are key to strengthening the early childhood workforce and supporting children and families. Policymakers can work to build a coordinated professional learning system for those who work in family child care, home visiting, and early intervention and prevention services.
The question is not whether family child care providers are professionals. The question is whether our systems will support them as professionals so that their learning—and children’s—deepen every day.
What is one part of your day that could become a learning routine or prompt reflection?
What is one way you can shift from a mindset of “getting through the day” to intentional teaching?
Where can you create opportunities for children to make choices? Where can you ask open-ended questions or build social and emotional skills into a routine?
What support would most strengthen your learning right now? How can a leader, coach, or policymaker assist you to get it?
What barriers make it difficult for you to participate in professional development? How might you overcome them?
María Hernández, MA, is a consultant at ParentChild+ and an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College, CUNY.
You Zhou, PhD, is associate director of research and learning at ParentChild+, where she leads research and quality improvement in early childhood settings. psyyouzhou@gmail.com
Sandra Saldaña, MS, is a senior data analyst at the Institute for Community Living.
César Zuñiga, MA, is a developmental psychologist and strategic consultant to NYU Langone Health’s Together Growing Strong initiative in Brooklyn, New York. czuniga.x@gmail.com
This article supports the following NAEYC Early Learning Programs standards and topics.
Standard 2: Families and Community
Engaging in Reciprocal Partnerships with Families and Fostering Community Connections
Standard 8: Professionalism
Demonstrating Professionalism as Early Childhood Educators
Photographs: First photo, © Getty Images; second through sixth photos, courtesy of César Zuñiga. Copyright © 2026 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See permissions and reprints online at NAEYC.org/resources/permissions.