Aurikshauna Ratliff started her in-home day care because it was cheaper than paying someone else to watch her kids.

The high price of child care meant going back to work as a middle school teacher made little financial sense, and Ratliff, 34, was sick of grading papers after work when she’d rather spend time with her babies. So she opened The Start of Excellence Childcare out of her Northeast Baltimore basement, where her 1- and 3-year-old kids are among several students.

Ratliff opened her little school through a program called Growing Opportunities for Family Child Care, which has helped launch 278 in-home day cares statewide since September 2022. That translates to nearly 2,000 more child care slots in a state where demand far outpaces supply. More child care options mean more parents can work and fewer kids are left in unregulated and sometimes dangerous situations.

Baltimore saw the greatest growth, with 61 new family child care programs. It’s much needed — there are only enough slots for half the city’s children under 5.

Family-based child care is popular with parents who need hours outside the typical work and school days, along with those looking for teachers who speak their language or understand their culture. The programs tend to be cheaper than child care centers; that helps parents of infants, who face the highest costs and worst care shortages. And smaller classrooms can be attractive to parents who feel traditional schools can’t accommodate their kids’ learning differences.

“A lot of families choose family child care because it is more like being at home with your own family,” said Lacey Eidman, senior director of child care programs and services for the Maryland Family Network, which manages GOFCC.

But family child care has been declining in Maryland and across the country for years. Today, Baltimore has fewer than 400 family child care programs, down from over 550 before the pandemic, said Tracy Harris, director of the Baltimore City Child Care Resource Center, which runs GOFCC for the city.

Even though most child care takes place in homes, it doesn’t receive the same public investment as other options, said Alexandra Patterson, director of policy and strategy for the advocacy organization Home Grown. She said that’s partly because, when people picture early learning, they often imagine schools and centers, not people’s homes.

Family-based child care operations are usually run by one person who does all of the teaching, cooking, cleaning and paperwork. These programs can take up to eight to 12 children, depending on the size of the home.

New business owners often need help understanding Maryland’s stringent child care regulations, Eidman said. To get licensed, new business owners have to complete hours of training, get their homes inspected and sink thousands into furniture, supplies and books.

GOFCC participants receive a laptop, do all of their licensing training for free and get intensive coaching. A process that used to take 12-18 months now takes six, Eidman said.

The program is funded with $450,000 from the state, and federal and philanthropic dollars. The legislature would need to refresh funding in its next budget, which faces a $1.4 billion hole. Eidman is optimistic because GOFCC is proven to work, she said.

Although Maryland has lost nearly 700 family child care providers since 2021, “the annual rate of decline slowed sharply” after the program launched, according to a December report from the Maryland State Department of Education.

It also targets child care deserts, including Southwest and East Baltimore.

“The return on investment is not just a data point,” Eidman said. “It is a child who is now in care. It is a mother who can go back to work. It is a woman who now is a small-business owner.”

Ratliff, known to her students as Miss Shauna, said the moment she heard about GOFCC, “I called them, and I haven’t stopped calling them since.” It helped her use flyers to recruit families. Someone came to her home to show her how to transform it into a day care, giving her a printer and books for her library. Ratliff now mentors other women starting their licensure journey.

The program provides up to 40 hours of business training because family child care “was never really treated like the business that it is,” Eidman said. Program graduates, 97% of whom are women, learn how to save for retirement, enroll in health insurance and charge enough to make a living wage.

“It’s one thing if we open those programs, but I need them to still be open a year, two years, three years from now,” Eidman said.

Aisha Johnson was desperate before she found Ratliff’s day care. The 35-year-old dental assistant was getting laughed off the phone when she called looking for someone who could take in her three youngest kids, including an infant.

She found Ratliff on a Facebook page promoting Black businesses. Now her 2- and 3-year-old daughters are with Ratliff full time, while her 5-year-old goes after preschool.

“That was kind of like my last resort, and Shauna just answered the call,” Johnson said. “She takes care of my children like her own.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.