Development of the FDCRS Overview of the Subscales and Items
Selected References Additional Notes
Supplementary Materials Translations

Development of the FDCRS

RATIONALE

When parents need child care outside their own homes, they are more likely to choose care in a caregiver's home than in a day care center, particularly for children under three. Family day care is the name given to child care that is provided in an individual's home for a small group of children, often including the provider's own children. Despite the fact that family day care is more prevalent than center-based care, state regulations for family day care homes are minimal, usually covering the number of children of various ages that are permitted and some basic health and safety protections. A statement by the caregiver attesting to good moral character and sound health is also commonly required. Regulatory standards vary widely from state to state. Some states require only registration with spot monitoring while others require licensing with regularly scheduled monitorIng visits. Requirements and resources for training also vary across the country.

Originally, child care was seen as a substitute for parental care and therefore primarily a service for parents. As child development knowledge grew, the quality of the child's experience in child care became a concern because of the possible detrimental effects of custodial, unstimulating care on the child's development. More recently, questions about possible negative effects on the child's social, emotional, and cognitive development have been raised, especially in the case of infants. There is also concern that parents who put babies into child care may feel cut off from their child and therefore may not properly bond to their child or develop a sense of parental competence.

High-quality day care in both family and center settings is now seen to be important for both the child and the parents. The goal for the child in quality child care is to foster total development rather than to provide only custodial care. The goal for parents is to provide continued opportunities for involvement and communication. The family day care provider is expected to be a more professional, aware person who can provide a safe, supportive, and stimulating environment for a group of children with varying needs, and can also communicate well with parents. Since family day care is a small business providing an important service, adjustments will have to be made in a home when it becomes a family child care home, just as adjustments have to be made to accommodate any other business or profession run in a home.

The Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS) defines quality of family day care comprehensively. The 32 items of the scale cover six categories: Space and Furnishings for Care and Learning, Basic Care, Language and Reasoning, Learning Activities, Social Development, and Adult Needs. Each item is described in four levels of quality- inadequate (does not even meet custodial care needs), minimal (meets custodial needs and, to some degree, basic developmental needs), good (meets developmental needs), excellent (high-quality personalized care).

The inadequate and minimal ratings focus on provision of basic materials and on health and safety precautions. The good and excellent ratings require positive interaction, planning, and personalized care as well as good materials. The descriptors cover the needs of a range of ages from infancy through kindergarten.

The FDCRS tries to remain realistic for family day care home settings by not requiring that things be done as they are in day care centers. Yet a family day care home should not be thought of as simply the private home of a family, it must provide the necessary additional organization, space, materials, activities, and interaction to give developmentally appropriate experiences to the children who are enrolled there for day care.

Viewing family day care providers as child care professionals is consistent with the Child Development Associate Family Day Care credential, made nationally available for family day care providers in 1985. Candidates must prepare for and show proficiency on six competency goals. Comparing the FDCRS items with the six CDA competency goals shows that the scale provides items to assess each competency. The chart below displays the FDCRS items for each CDA goal.
CDA Competencies FDCRS Items
1. Establish and maintain a good environment  
      ·  Safe 13,26
      ·  Healthy 8,9,10,11,12
      ·  Learning 1,2,3,4,5
2. Advance children's competence  
      ·  Physical 5
      ·  Cognitive 17,18,24,25,26
      ·  Communication 14a & b, 15a & b,16
      ·  Creative 19,20,21,22,23,25
3. Support social/emotional development 6a & b, 7, 27, 28, 29
4. Establish positive relations with families 7,30
5. Ensure a well-run program 25,26,32
6. Maintain commitment to professionalism 31,32

The FDCRS was designed to be comprehensive yet easy to use so that it would be helpful in self-evaluation by care providers, for supervision and monitoring by agency staff, and also in research and program evaluation. It is currently being used in both training and research in a wide variety of programs.

Please direct questions or comments to Vanessa Loiselle.
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