How can state and city leaders ensure that home-based pre-K programs deliver the same high-quality outcomes as traditional classrooms?

This book provides a comprehensive, research-backed framework for designing mixed-delivery pre-K systems that successfully include and support family child care (FCC) educators. While millions of families prefer home-based settings for their four-year-olds, public pre-K policy has historically favored center- and school-based models. As states and municipalities expand universal pre-K, establishing an integrated mixed-delivery system has become an urgent policy imperative. This text bridges policy and practice, offering a clear roadmap for policymakers and agency leaders to adapt quality-improvement systems—such as classroom observations, curriculum fidelity guidance, and professional development—to the unique operational realities of home-based environments.

Drawing on the latest research, including seminal work by Erin Harmeyer and GG Weisenfeld, this book combines large-scale national data with qualitative insights from FCC providers. Readers will discover actionable strategies to support workforce equity, establish fair compensation models, and align home-based providers under a unified quality umbrella with public schools, private centers, and Head Start. By investing in the home-based workforce, state and city leaders can expand access, respect family choice, and elevate early childhood outcomes systemwide.

Key insights and strategies:

Equitable mixed-delivery system design: Step-by-step guidance on unifying public schools, community centers, Head Start, and home-based settings.
Targeted workforce equity & compensation: Policy strategies to provide FCC educators with professional recognition, sustainable resources, and fair pay.
Adapting continuous quality improvement (CQI): Practical methods for adapting classroom observations and curriculum monitoring to fit home-based settings.
Fulfilling family preference and access: Research-backed arguments for how supporting FCCs advances racial and socioeconomic equity for local families.
Data-driven policy decision-making: Synthesizing national quantitative data with provider perspectives to build sustainable early childhood infrastructure.

Designing Policies for Quality Pre-K in Family Child Care Programs demonstrates that when public policy honors and invests in home-based educators, mixed-delivery systems become powerful engines for educational equity and child well-being.