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8.8 -4V7 The Role of Large Family Child Care Homes in Local Child Care Supply Large family child care homes play a key role in the delivery of child care services in our communities. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation funded a recent study of licensed Family Child Care Homes in San Mateo County. The California Child Care Workforce Study shows the improved financial viability of large family child care homes, as compared to smaller licensed child care homes. It also points to the advantages of large family child care homes for children and families, compared to small homes. • The average net income of the large family child care providers is 61 % higher as compared to small homes. (In San Mateo County an average of $36,029 / year compared to $15,075 /year.) • They have greater tenure as providers (13 years compared to 10 years for small homes). • They are more likely to have obtained college credits and specialized training in child development. • The are more likely to utilize available resources to help them offer quality care to low- income children. Forty -two percent (42 %) of large homes providers enroll children who are eligible for state subsidy payments compared to 26% of small homes. • More than two- thirds of large homes participate in the USDA Child Care Food Program, compared to 42% of small homes. • Nearly 73% were homeowners, compared to 61% of adults in the county as a whole. - It is in a community's best interest to eliminate land use barriers to the expansion of small family child care homes to large homes. Simply put, in San Mateo County, it is becoming increasingly difficult for small family child care homes to afford to remain in business. Large homes are much more financially viable in our high cost county, and make many additional contributions to quality of care and family support. One of the objections to large family child care homes is that they are thought to contribute to increased traffic and parking problems. This is the perception of immediate neighbors who may turn out in force to object to a small home's application for an administrative use permit to expand to serve 14 children. However, the City as a whole, and indeed the neighborhood as a whole, may suffer fewer traffic and parking problems in its residential communities, as well as on its main arteries and freeways, if the City's policies allow the marketplace to produce an adequate supply of large licensed homes in every neighborhood in Redwood City because, overall, the City will achieve the objective of placing a larger number of licensed child care spaces closer to the child's own residence. By adopting land use policies that allow large family child care homes in residential neighborhoods on the same terms as small homes, cities can remove barriers to small family child care homes expanding to large, and thereby allow the community marketplace to create an adequate supply of diverse child care choices for working families in every residential neighborhood.