What is Family, Friend & Neighbor Child Care?

Family, Friend, & Neighbor (FFN) refers to care provided to relatives or to one additional family other than their own. In California, these providers do not need to be licensed, which is why they’re also referred to as license-exempt providers.

Family Friend & Neighbor Providers' Strengths

  • Families often choose FFN intentionally because it offers trust, safety, communication, and cultural fit

  • FFN care’s core strengths are relational and culturally grounded, and these strengths are strongly connected to child development

  • There is more child-led play and individualized attention

Common Assumptions of FFN Caregivers

  • FFN Caregivers provide lower quality than other forms of child care

  • Learning only occurs in licensed care

  • Training equals competence

What is quality caregiving?

Based on our research, it all centers around relationship-based care. There is a high value on the importance of trust and cultural alignment, and the importance of positive everyday interactions, the give and take that keeps relationships humming.

The Way Forward

What can we do? We can evaluate policies that perpetuate bias against FFN care and dismantle them. Next, we can integrate relationship-based indicators into the states’ framework for evaluating the quality of care. We can also establish reimbursement rates that reflect the cost of caring for children in a home-based setting.

  • Policy Recommendations to support FFN caregivers
    • Increase reimbursement rates to reflect the true cost of care

      • State reimbursement rates for license-exempt FFN providers often trail behind licensed center pay.

      • AB-1981: This bill will transition California away from an outdated reimbursement system that’s left providers making less than minimum wage.

    • Limited Grant Access: FFN providers struggle to access direct cash grants for buying books, arts and crafts, or safety equipment for their homes.

    • Increase FFN and family awareness of child care subsidies and reduce family barriers to accessing subsidies.

    • Provide funding to conduct outreach to FFNs who are not currently engaged with organizations that provide resources and support to FFNs, such as R&Rs, First 5 agencies, public libraries, and family resource centers.

To learn more:

Podcast links

Explore the Research

  • FFN Bias Study Report links

    • Year 1: https://rrnetwork.org/publications/ffn-bias-study-year-1-report During the first year of this project, we conducted interviews and surveys with influential leaders, parents, and FFN providers, to uncover underlying anti-FFN biases which exist in narrative and resulting policies in early care and education.

    • Year 2: https://rrnetwork.org/publications/ffn-bias-study-year-2-report Building on Year 1, this study focuses on uncovering/identifying the institutionalized bias against FFN and its marginalization within the formal child care systems. The report also looks at the practices and policies of the California Alternative Payment Program (CAPP) and Child Care Resource and Referral (R&R) programs for introducing FFN in the referral or subsidy process as an option for care.