North Carolina has an ongoing commitment to families having a mixed delivery early care and learning system including equitable access to family child care home providers. North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) started a pilot study in August of 2023 with preschool development grant funds to determine if program quality would increase if family child care home providers were paid a higher reimbursement rate that was closer to the cost of care. Building on the work of the previous pilot, FPG will continue to evaluate the impact of increased reimbursement rates on quality and provider compensation and benefits. DCDEE staff will continue to facilitate community of practice calls with DCDEE leadership, Grantee staff and other state and community level partners to strengthen providers’ understanding and awareness of resources and industry best practices. This will build a system of support for family child care home providers participating in the pilot to create opportunities for learning and sharing with their fellow participants and other key stakeholders. As part of this study, family child care home provider participants will receive an increased subsidy payment distributed monthly based on capacity of program and quality stars. This payment will be distributed through DCDEE’s subsidy payment system and will be tracked throughout the study. FPG will conduct the following tasks:

1. Revise the family child care home compensation pilot program, including the eligibility requirements, selection criteria, and compensation formula aligned with the current subsidy market rate.
2. Develop an application process for the pilot program.
3. Conduct five outreach activities to recruit providers to disseminate information about the pilot program, including advertising through agency websites, Division of Social Services, and other state-wide and community level organizations in partnership with DCDEE.
4. Determine the eligibility of providers for enrollment in the pilot program by reviewing applications. Identify providers that are selected randomly to participate in the pilot program.
5. Conduct and distribute pre-pilot surveys to a minimum of 50 family child care home providers to learn about opportunities, recommendations, and challenges to increase compensation, benefits, and program quality.
6. Conduct two focus group sessions with a minimum of 20 family child care providers to gather data on compensation, quality improvement opportunities including professional development and technical assistance, and challenges in workforce retention and include a summary analysis of the data in the final report.
7. Conduct virtual and/or face-to-face interviews with a minimum of five key stakeholders and partners working with family child care home providers to develop recommendations to increase compensation, benefits, and program quality and submit a summary analysis of the data to the Division.