Home Based Childcare

Blue Ridge

Beginnings

Serving Home-Based Child-Care Providers of the High Country

We are committed to establishing a home-based childcare network that: 

  • Is accessible to providers by location, type of provider and socio-economic status.  
  • Recognizes all home-based child-care as a valid and important part of the early childhood system and as an important way we care for our children. 
  • Values children and families. 
  • Empowers HBCC providers with information, community, resources, and validation. 
  • Promotes protective factors. 
  • Provides meaningful support, quality resources, services and information that is accessible to ALL home-based care providers. 
We will accomplish this by:
  • This community will empower childcare providers by creating a community connected with the information, resources, and validation needed to support in home childcare.
  • This community will consistently search for and provide meaningful insight and acknowledgment to the valuable work provided by in home childcare, combining existing expertise with advancements found in the field of work.
  • This community will be designed to support to all in home childcare providers, regardless of location, type of provider, socio-economic status, race, or sex.
We will utilize the following tools to help those doing home-based childcare:
  • Play and Learn Groups that are offered at various locations, dates, and times throughout our community.
  • Quarterly Family Support Days to help meet tangible needs for those doing home-based childcare.
  • Routine and relative training for caregivers.
  • Identify and advance system-level changes to help continue championing the cause and value that home-based child care deserves.

*The Blue Ridge Beginnings Network is part of a larger Community of Practice made up of eight Home-Based Child Care Networks from across North Carolina. We began meeting in the Spring of 2023 with the support of partners including Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC Foundation and Home Grown. A Home-Based Childcare Fact Sheet can be found here. 

What is

Home Based Childcare?

Nationwide, more infants and toddlers are cared for in HBCC than in center-based care.

Home-based childcare (HBCC) includes a range of providers, from licensed providers operating small businesses in their homes to care provided by family, friends, and neighbors, all providing a vital service to their communities.

For a Home Based Childcare Fact sheet,

Click Here

How to

Get Involved!

We have a variety of ways for you to get involved with us!

Follow us on Facebook to get the latest updates.  

Join a Play and Learn Group. These are offered at various locations, dates, and times throughout our community. Please click here to see our latest groups. 

Reach out to our Home-Based Childcare Coordinator Wes Berry to get more information. wes@thechildren’scouncil.org 

Caregiver

Resources

Summary of the North Carolina Child Care Law and Rule for Child Care Centers and Kinship Care.
What is Child Care?

  • North Carolina Child Care Law and Rule for Child Care Centers Licensed centers must, at a minimum, meet requirements in the following areas.  

    • three or more unrelated children under 13 years of age 
    • receiving care from a non-relative 
    • on a regular basis, at least once a week for more than four hours per day but less than 24 hours. 

    It is only when all of these conditions exist that regulation is required. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for regulating childcare. This is carried out through the Division of Child Development and Early Education. The purpose of regulation is to protect the health and well-being of children while they are away from their parents. The law defining childcare is in the North Carolina General Statutes, Article 7, Chapter 110. The North Carolina Child Care Commission is responsible for adopting rules to carry out the law. Some counties and cities in North Carolina also have local zoning requirements for childcare programs. 

    For a complete Summary of the North Carolina Child Care Law and Rule for Child Care Centers please click here.  

What is Kinship Care?

  • Kinship caregivers often assume full-time responsibility of caring for a child when they cannot live with their parents. Kinship care can occur in various ways, such as: 

    • Informal  Care - When a private or informal arrangement is made between a parent and kinship caregiver and there is no open case with a county child welfare agency. 
    • Formal Care - When a private or formal agreement is made through court involvement, such as a custody order, guardianship, or adoption. 
    • Kinship Foster Care - When a court grants custody to a county child welfare agency the child is placed with a kinship caregiver. 
    • Temporary Safety Provider - A voluntary, temporary intervention made between a parent and a county child welfare services agency during the delivery of child protective services. TSPs are used to address immediate safety threats to a child(ren) when a child(ren) is found unsafe in the care of their parents/caretakers during child protective services. TSP’s must only be used when less intrusive safety interventions are not sufficient. 

    For a complete Summary of the NCDHHS Rules/Requirements please click here.