Department: County Administration
Department Head/Elected Official: David Berry, County Administrator
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Transmittal
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Transmittal by the Office of County Administration of a report summarizing opportunities to support home-based child care providers across Harris County.
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Background and Discussion:
In 2021, Harris County received a grant from Home Grown - a national organization focused on home-based child care providers - to determine how best to support child care providers who utilize their own home to care for children. There are over 1,000 regulated home-based child care (HBCC) providers across Harris County that are licensed to serve up to 12 children in their home, and even more HBCC providers who serve up to three children in their home and are not required to be licensed. Harris County utilized the planning grant from Home Grown to understand how to better support the work of these providers and therefore support young children and families.
The county engaged Connective, a Houston-based human-centered design group, to interview home-based providers across the county to learn what supports are needed for child care providers. The final report includes the findings of interviews with Vietnamese, Spanish, and English-speaking providers about their needs and outlines opportunities for the county to better support home-based child care providers. The attached report includes key themes from child care providers, including:
* Most providers do not participate in the child care subsidy program because of burdensome enrollment processes.
* Most providers are over capacity and need support to manage all p...
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