In a blog post on May 4th, the Urban Institute argues that barriers need to be removed so that more home-based child care providers can participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). In this post they provide the landscape of home-based child care, why expanding participation on CACFP would be beneficial to the children and providers and offer suggestions for how policymakers can help home-based child care providers participate on the program. A few of these recommendations include:
helping sponsors expand participation in hard-to-serve areas,
ease administrative burden,
fairly compensate providers,
allow virtual visits to continue post-COVID; and
improve coordination between CACFP and other agencies.
These are just a few of the recommendations. Read the whole post, "Easing Barriers to Child Care Food Subsidies for Home-Based Child Care Providers Offers Policymakers an Overlooked Opportunity."
In April 2021 the Urban Institute also published a brief called "The Child and Adult Care Food Program and Home-Based Child Care Providers: Expanding Participation" which delves further into the barriers and possibilities of enabling more providers and children to access the CACFP.
What are your thoughts on expanding participation of home-based child care in the CACFP? Share in the comments below or email me, samantha@ccfproundtable.org.