Family Child Care Checklist

Created to provide a unique tool to help In-home Family Child Care Providers assess their physical environment and create a quality improvement plan.

Introduction

The space you use in your home to provide child care services can have a dramatic impact on your ability to offer high quality care. Experienced family child care providers know that the layout and organization of their child care space can either help or hinder their efforts. Family child care space offers some unique challenges, since the space does double-duty: it is your family’s living space, but it also serves as a place to provide care for several children every day.

The Family Child Care Space Checklist is designed to help you look carefully at various aspects of your home environment to determine what works well and where you may want to make changes.

The Checklist is organized into five broad categories:

• Entrance – the exterior of your home, how you enter the space and what you see once you first enter.
• General Health and Safety Components of the Home – the degree to which the space supports the health and safety of the children you care for.
• Caregiving Areas – where children’s basic needs; eating, sleeping, diapering, etc. are met.
• Learning Environment – how the space is set up to support exploration, learning and play.
• Outdoor Play Space – where children experience nature and play outdoors