QUALITYstarsNY and the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) collaborated to launch a year-long Business Administration Scale (BAS) Community of Practice (COP) for family child care providers. The BAS is a tool designed to measure and improve the overall quality of business and professional practices in family child care settings. This initiative aimed to connect QUALITYstarsNY participating family child care providers in New York with free, tailored support to sustain and expand their businesses.
The LIIF team headed into this COP as BAS-certified assessors. To be BAS-certified, an individual must be reliable in the BAS, demonstrate the ability to conduct an assessment, and recertification is required to maintain the certified assessor title. To obtain a BAS certification, LIIF attended four days of training at the McCormick Center in Wheeling, IL. The BAS certification process allowed them to build confidence and resources to help support the participants of the cohort. With the ability to conduct formal assessments, they had the means to use data collected from observations to measure their impact on business practices.
12 Sessions of Professional Development
Thirty providers, along with their Quality Improvement Specialists, were invited to participate in the COP, which provided 18 hours of professional development focused on business and management skills. After polling participants on which times worked best for them, LIIF found that offering times during evening hours best responded to the needs of the providers this cohort aimed to support. Beforehand, participants were asked to sign a Participant Agreement, which laid out the benefits of the COP and the minimum requirements to participate. LIIF notes, “Being clear about expectations upfront helped us build trust and from there, we were able to create a community around shared goals and aspirations.” For 12 monthly, 90-minute sessions, the group convened virtually and focused on different BAS Items including recordkeeping, marketing, and communication with families, as well as managing finances and reducing the risk of operating a home business. These sessions posed a great opportunity for attendees to build a network with each other and have their questions about running a business answered.
Amy (left) and Kathy (right) presented about the BAS COP at the 2024 National Association for Family Child Care conference.
Participation Impact
Many of the participating providers expressed interest in being a part of this initiative to better understand the business aspects of operating a child care program in an effort to expand and improve their quality of service. For Noelia O’Leary, owner of Nelly’s Nest Early Learning Home, Inc. in Rockland County, NY, the BAS tool has been essential in supporting her knowledge of best practices for running a successful program. “As a childcare provider, I am responsible for the care and wellbeing of my students and often my needs are put last. The BAS tool is a fantastic resource used to make sure the business owner is taking care of themselves,” says O’Leary, who’s been operating her business for seven years. In addition to strengthening her program’s foundation of procedures to ensure she is compensated fairly with benefits, the BAS COP has helped her understand the importance of proper documentation and bookkeeping practices to maximize profitability.
“I have gained so much useful information and knowledge about the BAS tool while taking this class. Things I thought I knew but needed more clarity. This class was very well put together. The facilitators and all the Quality Improvement Specialists that were onboard were open to all ideas from a wide range of providers from all over New York. Thank you for offering this opportunity to family providers.”
To assess the cohort’s effectiveness, LIIF distributed surveys during 10 out of the 12 sessions. The responses collected addressed participants’ satisfaction and the helpfulness and relevance of the sessions.
On average:
The success of this COP highlights the essential role that business and management training plays in supporting family child care programs. The cohort provided a pathway for participating providers to meet Quality Standards in management and leadership including key areas such as financial accountability and stability, and administrative self-assessment (ASA-1). Its alignment with these standards made the initiative especially effective in supporting the needs of the providers. Through translating materials and exploring funding options, QUALITYstarsNY and LIIF hope to expand the program to offer more providers across New York State the opportunity to benefit from the professional development provided by the BAS COP.
