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 THE PAST

The National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) is a national membership organization working in conjunction with more than 400 state and local family child care provider associations across the United States.  These groups represent more than one million family child care providers caring for more than four million children in the United States.  Members of NAFCC reside in every state, as well as in several foreign countries.

In 1978, the Children’s Foundation (CF), a Washington, D. C. child advocacy organization, began a study of family day care.  As part of the study, Children’s Foundation established the National Family Day Care Advisory Panel, a group of family child care leaders and advocates from around the country.  The panel’s purpose was “to share information, network with the family day care community, and define the scope of needs for family day care – the provider and the profession.”  (Gellert, et al 35)

While the Children’s Foundation project provided a vehicle for family child care leaders from around the country to meet, there was also much work in family child care occurring at local and regional levels simultaneously.  Local and state family child care associations held conferences and in several areas worked collaboratively with other states to conduct regional conferences that addressed issues that were emerging during that time.  Even before the Children’s Foundation project, family child care leaders around the country were working together at the grassroots level to address family child care issues.

The advisory panel for the Children’s Foundation project met for three years.  During that time the members of the panel facilitated discussions, identified common issues, and explored family child care trends around the country.  Panel members quickly realized that issues being faced by providers in the different states were the same, even when the locations were different.  Family child care providers everywhere were dealing with zoning challenges, with IRS issues, potential cuts to the food program, and a variety of other concerns.

NAFCC – THE EARLY DAYS

When the Children’s Foundation project ended, the advisory panel recognized the critical need for a national organization dedicated specifically to the family child care community.   In 1982 the National Family Day Care Advisory Panel announced the formation of the National Association for Family Day Care (NAFDC) and identified two primary goals for the organization:

• Promoting the understanding of home-based child car
• Enhancing the professionalism of family day care providers

The 31 founding members of NAFDC had served as members of the Children’s Foundation project advisory board.  Founding members of NAFDC came from 20 states and included family child care providers, support agency staff, and other family child care advocates.  The board included five African-Americans, 14 Caucasians, and one Hispanic; members’ ages ranged from the mid 20’s to the late 50’s.  The majority of founding members were women, but the original incorporators’ of NAFDC included one man. (Information taken from the Commemorative Journal of the Children’s Foundation – 1994)

The first governing board for the new organization included Jeffrey Kent, President; Maria Otto, Vice President; Sandra Gellert, Secretary; and Sarah Brooks, Treasurer.  The board of directors was designed to include a representative from each of the ten Head Start regions.  Dues were initially set at $2 per year, but were quickly raised to $10 after the first year.  The Children’s Foundation continued to provide technical assistance and staff support during the early years of NAFDC.

During its early years, the governing board of NAFDC expanded the organization’s primary goals in order to meet the needs of the field. The expanded goals included:

• Promote quality family day care in order to provide the best services to children, parents and providers in the USA

• Advocate on behalf of family day care providers, children and their families

• Educate parents, providers and policy makers locally and nationally

• Enhance the recognition of family day care as an acceptable form of child care

• Promote family day care as a community service

• Increase the opportunity for the development of knowledge, ability and self-respect of family day care providers

• Provide an identifiable national voice for providers

• Provide access to pertinent information from local to national levels

• Offer benefits or related membership services

CONFERENCES

In 1983, NAFDC and the Children’s Foundation collaborated to present the first NAFDC conference in Washington, D.C.  Subsequent conferences have been held in Washington, D.C.; Detroit, Michigan; San Mateo, California; New York City, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; Orlando, Florida; Denver, Colorado; Reston, Virginia; Bloomington, Minnesota; San Diego, California; Buffalo, New York; and Kansas City, Missouri; Anaheim, CA; Schaumburg, Illinois, Baltimore, MD; and Nashville,TN.   Minneapolis, Denver, and Orlando have hosted the conference twice. Henderson (LasVegas), NV will host the 2011 conference.

NAFCC has chosen to move its annual conference around the country in order that all members might have an opportunity to attend a national conference in or near their home state.  NAFCC works with a local host – sometimes the statewide family child care association or a collaborative of local associations – in order to promote the conference in the area and to generate increased participation in the Association.

CHANGING THE NAME

Because of the field’s increased emphasis on professionalism, the NAFDC board began discussions about appropriate terminology and the differences in connotation between day care and child care.  After lengthy, sometimes intense debates, the NAFDC Board officially changed the name of the organization to the National Association for Family Child Care in 1994.

NAFDC ORIGINAL INCORPORATOR