III. EXPLORING POSITIONS
Description:
Family Child Care Provider - A person who operates a registered family or a licensed group family child day care business in a private residence.
Family Child Care Alternate Provider - An approved substitute for the Family Child Care Provider who works in the licensed provider's home.
Group Family Child Care Assistant - An employee who works in the residence of the owner/provider. See Assistant to Head of Group (Position 3)
Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions: The family child care provider has knowledge of child development, health, safety and nutrition. The provider uses good speaking and listening skills to communicate with children and their families. The provider plans routines and activities that contribute to each child's physical, intellectual, emotional, and social well-being. Critical thinking, problem solving and techniques of child management are important skills for the family child care provider. This position requires skills in working with young children, an appreciation for all kinds of families and cultures, a respect for the family as the child's first teacher and the willingness to work as a partner with the family.
Employment Settings: Family and Group Family Child Care are offered in the provider's own residence or in an approved residential home. In the case of the Alternate or Assistant, the employment setting is the home of the registered/licensed provider.
Required Qualifications: Eighteen years of age, minimum of two years experience caring for children under six years of age or one year of experience caring for children under six years of age plus six hours of training or education in early childhood development, and three references. (NYS Office of Children and Family Services (NYSOCFS) 417.13 (a) and 416.13(a)). All persons holding this position must be cleared through the NYS Central Registry of Child Abuse and fingerprints submitted to required authorities.
Preparation: This is an entry-level position with minimal preparation required. A provider may take early childhood courses in high school and/or college as preparation for this position. All new providers are required to take the NYSOCFS approved 15 hour health and safety training prior to registration or licensing.
Continuing Education: Thirty hours of training completed every two years of the registration or licensing period which consists of:
- Principles of childhood development, including the appropriate supervision of children, meeting the needs of children enrolled in the program with physical or emotional challenges and behavior management and discipline
- Nutrition and health needs of children
- Child day care program development
- Safety and security procedures, including communication between parents and staff
- Business record maintenance and management
- Child abuse and maltreatment identification and prevention
- Statutes and regulations pertaining to child day care
- Statutes and regulations pertaining to child abuse and maltreatment
- Education and information on the identification, diagnosis and prevention of shaken baby syndrome
Alternate Pathways: The provider may move from a position in center-based child care operations to a family child care business or move from an assistant position to family child care provider.
Opportunity for Advancement: The family child care provider is self-employed. The provider may expand the business to group family child care by applying for a group family child care license and hiring assistant providers to maintain adult/child ratios with larger numbers of children.
Related Careers:
Serving Children Directly – Head of Group, Assistant, Aid in center-based program
Serving Families Directly – Referral service agent
Providing Information Goods and Services –Substitute provider, broker for shared services (cost-savings purchases, bookkeeping, networking), advocate/lobbyist, publisher (newsletter, policy updates), speaker/lecturer, nutritionist, field representative for a child care resource and referral agency, vendor.