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Family Childcare Homes Face Enormous Hurdles

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Family childcare homes, and licensed programs in providers’ residences, receive lower subsidy reimbursements than centers and lack opportunities to get North Carolina Pre-K funding. The statewide number of family childcare homes has dropped by 34% since 2018.

Published

1 month ago

April 14, 2025

Oakland Post

By Liz Bell, EdNC

Students play a matching game at Modern Early Learning Academy. Photo by: Liz Bell, EdNC

Shalicia Jackson, also known as Shay, has done almost everything there is to do in early childhood education. Jackson has been an assistant childcare teacher, a lead teacher, a Head Start coordinator, a family advocate, and a social worker in public schools. She has worked in nonprofits and at the Durham Partnership for Children in North Carolina, training teachers to better support young children. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in social work. But when Jackson opened Modern Early Learning Academy in 2022, a five-star family childcare home in Winston-Salem, she entered a new world. “One of the things I didn’t really have experience in was family childcare,” Jackson said on a sunny day in her backyard. “I knew they were out there, but they were — like we are now — invisible. We’re an invisible workforce.” Inside an industry on the brink of collapse, family childcare providers often feel even more devalued than their center-based counterparts. Family childcare homes, and licensed programs in providers’ residences, receive lower subsidy reimbursements than centers and lack opportunities to get North Carolina Pre-K funding. The statewide number of family childcare homes has dropped by 34% since 2018. Yet parents and children often prefer family childcare for its intimate environments, flexible scheduling, and cultural and linguistic relevance. Its business model is also more sustainable than models for center-based care in rural areas, experts say, since often there are not enough children of a certain age in a community to make up entire classrooms. In the years since the pandemic, regional and state efforts have formed to protect the state’s family childcare network, recruit new home-based providers, and provide training and advocacy opportunities.

Jackson’s program is the product of one of those efforts — a 2021 family childcare expansion project from Smart Start of Forsyth County of North Carolina focused on women of color interested in opening a program. Yet hers is the only surviving program of the five that received the project’s start-up grants. “This has been the most challenging yet rewarding career choice to date,” Jackson said. “That’s why I advocate — for the people that came before me and those that will come after me. I have to do my due diligence, because, coming from wearing many different hats in this field, this right here, it’s very hard work.” With even more uncertainty facing childcare in the coming years, Jackson has made it her mission to bring more understanding, respect, and investment to family childcare, starting with her fellow local providers.

Balancing many roles

It was Jackson’s experience as a parent that led her down this unexpected path. After moving from Durham to Winston-Salem for more affordable housing, Jackson planned to commute back to her job in Durham. But, like so many new parents returning to work, she couldn’t find childcare for her toddler son. “I was devastated. Everywhere I called,” she said, the waitlist “was like six months to a year to beyond.” Her sister brought up the idea of opening a family childcare home. It could solve her childcare issue while letting her spend more time with her son. Plus, she had space and early childhood experience. Over the past three years, Jackson has discovered the job’s intensity and multidimensional demands. Family childcare providers are balancing several roles. They are the sole provider not only of care and education, but of food, transportation, and family support services. They are also administrators, making their own curriculum and assessment choices, and keeping up with licensing and reporting responsibilities. And they are business owners, managing the finances of their programs and collecting payments from families. “That is the challenge — wearing all those different hats and having to manage all of that,” Jackson said. “Instead of comparing family childcare providers to teachers, we need to be compared to directors.”

The very thing that got Jackson into family childcare — motherhood — has turned into one of the trickiest balancing acts, she said. Because of the state’s licensing rules, her son KJ occupies one of her facility’s licensed seats. But for three hours during the day, he instead attends another childcare program that recently opened. It was too challenging to create clear boundaries, for herself and her son, she said. “I found it really hard to balance being his mommy and being his teacher, and also he was having a really difficult time trying to manage being home and at school, telling the difference,” she said. That means Jackson is losing out doubly, she said because she is paying for out-of-home childcare but can’t enroll another child in her son’s place. Plus, as KJ enters kindergarten next year, Jackson is struggling with how to move forward. “My reason for opening is now going away,” Jackson said. “My wheels are turning.”

‘A seat at the table’

Though Jackson stumbled into family childcare for personal reasons, she has found a larger purpose in connecting with family childcare providers who have been in the field for decades. Understanding just how taxing the job is, Jackson wanted a space for others in her role to find support and understanding. She formed the Triad Self Care Support Group as that space, an in-person and online support group that provides fellowship, professional development, and a space to share stories, resources, and challenges.

More on childcare

Jackson also shares advocacy tools and opportunities. She had just assembled members of the group to show up to a local conversation with elected officials and representatives from local institutions. By the end of the day, Jackson had a voicemail from a local Smart Start employee she had met at the event, asking how their efforts could include family childcare providers. “It is time for family childcare home providers to have a seat at the table with the people that are making decisions,” Jackson said. “We can no longer afford to sit back and just vent about it. We need to be solution-focused and start joining committees and organizations, start being a part of the communities that are making decisions — going out and showing face. Because if not, then we’re just going to keep being at the bottom of the bottom. They’re going to prioritize other things, and we’re just going to be left suffering again.” Jackson is serving as a member of the steering committee for the Pre-K Priority, a universal pre-K effort in Forsyth County that is expanding access but does not currently include family childcare homes as potential sites. She is also connected with the state chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance to advocate for early childhood investment at the state level. In November, she was awarded an NC Early Education Coalition’s Child Care Heroes award for her advocacy as a family child care provider.

“In my journey of advocacy, I have learned that although I have won various roles within the early childhood field, and have a master’s degree, anyone can be a change agent without needing big titles or degrees, but rather a willingness to raise their voice and advocate for what they believe in,” Jackson said while accepting that award. “Parents and childcare providers play a crucial role in determining what is best for their children. Their guidance and decision-making skills are nothing short of heroic, making them the real heroes. We must recognize their invaluable contributions and amplify their voices.” The children inside her home, and the families she treats as extensions of her own, are the core of the community Jackson has created. “Childcare is my ministry,” Jackson said. “It’s where I was led to. The universe led me here. They keep me going, just to see their improvement, to see the parents happy. That keeps me hopeful.”

‘Not on a good path’

The story of one of the families Jackson has served has stuck with her through her journey of caregiving, educating, and advocating. It’s the story of Cayden and Samantha Black. Cayden attended Jackson’s program after his previous childcare facility closed because of staffing shortages. The program gave the family 30 days to find another arrangement. “They came to me in desperate need,” Jackson said. Fortunately, she had an open spot. Cayden thrived in the program. “I thought it was just heaven there,” said Black, Cayden’s mom. “He was at big daycares, where there’s a lot of children and only one teacher. With Ms. Shay, it was her and only five other kids. So, they all got one-on-one time, and it was more of a home setting. And he liked that.” Both Black and Jackson could tell how much Cayden was growing. “He learned so much there for like the year he was there than he did over the three years he was at the other place,” Black said. After working full-time in retail and at an auto shop, Black went on maternity leave to have her second child. Colt was born with complicated health issues, which made it even harder for Black to find childcare.

At the time, Jackson did not have an opening or the capacity to care for a child with a medical condition. Black said she did everything she could to keep Cayden in Jackson’s program. Her in-laws pitched in to help pay for him to stay. But as she kept facing rejections for a spot for Colt, she could no longer afford to keep Cayden in care without returning to work. “My husband is the only one working,” Black said. “He’s a mechanic. He loves his job, but they do not get paid well.” Black is now struggling to meet her children’s needs as a stay-at-home mother. She not only wants childcare access to work but wants to ensure her children can learn. “I feel bad because he needs friends,” she said of Cayden. “He needs the structure of school.” Black said Cayden was heartbroken to leave Jackson’s program. Jackson felt the same way. “I had developed a relationship, and I’d seen so much progress with Cayden,” she said. “That is when it hit me, I was devastated. I was like, this infrastructure of this childcare system is definitely not on a good path. And there needs to be something done. Her story has always stuck with me. I wish there was something that I could have done more to support the family.”

‘I wish I had an answer’

Jackson is committed to doing her part to fix that broader infrastructure, which she knows is at risk of collapsing further. Jackson opened her program while the state was sending stabilization grants with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Though the job has been challenging, those funds have made it possible. “There is no way that I would have been able to sustain my business to be open this long without the help and support of the stabilization grant and some of the local grants,” she said. Those funds officially ended, and providers are looking toward state legislators to extend them this session. If not, about one in five childcare programs are expected to close within a year, according to a survey from the NC Child Care Resource & Referral Council. Prices for parents are also likely to increase.

Jackson is afraid to face either of those possibilities. She considers herself lucky to have a spouse who helps her financially and emotionally. She is looking for other ways to make ends meet without the burden falling on her parents. “I definitely don’t want to increase those prices, because it’s not fair to my family,” she said. “I do feel like if I just add, like one or two kids for my second shifts, maybe do Uber Eats or something like that, maybe that will help kind of supplement … I don’t know. I wish I had an answer. I’m gonna try to stay in as long as I possibly can. I’m gonna try to maintain.”

Editor’s note: Since this story was first reported, Jackson has had to close Modern Early Learning Academy.

Liz Bell is the early childhood reporter for EdNC.

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Rep. Al Green Files Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Rep. Green told Newsweek that he is moving on impeachment now before “tanks are rolling down the street.”

Published

2 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

Congressman Al Green (D-TX) has filed articles of impeachment against President Trump. Rep. Green, 77, has served in Congress since 2005. President Trump is the only President who has been impeached twice by the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Green told Newsweek that he is moving on impeachment now before “tanks are rolling down the street.” The impeachment resolution filed by Rep. Green on May 19, states that President Trump is, “unfit to represent the American values of decency and morality, respectability and civility, honesty, and propriety, reputability, and integrity, is unfit to defend the ideals that have made America great, is unfit to defend liberty and justice for all as extolled in the Pledge of Allegiance, is unfit to defend the American ideal of all persons being created equal as exalted in the Declaration of Independence, is unfit to ensure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare and to ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity as lauded in the preamble to the United States Constitution, is unfit to protect government of the people…” Whether Rep. Green can force a vote in the U.S. House on impeachment remains an unknown issue. President Trump was impeached on December 18, 2019, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was then impeached a second time on January 13, 2021, for “Incitement of insurrection” in the wake of the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters.

The White House stated Black Press USA on Rep. Green’s effort to impeach the President. “This week, Democrats ousted their DNC ‘leader,’ opposed the largest tax cut in history, and were exposed for actively covering up Joe Biden’s four-year cognitive decline. Now, Democrats have turned their sights to threatening impeachment. We are witnessing the collapse of the Democrat Party before our eyes. Not a single one of these efforts will help the American people. The contrast could not be more clear: President Trump is fighting for historic tax relief for the American people, Democrats are fighting themselves,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly in a written statement. Several decisions and legal interpretations by the Trump Administration are currently being challenged in federal court. On May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court debated the issue of birthright citizenship after a legal challenge on the issue by the Trump Administration.

During that legal challenge, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson challenged Trump’s solicitor general Dean John Sauer by saying, “Your argument seems to turn our justice system into a catch-me-if-you-can kind of regime … where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people’s rights.” Rep. Green’s impeachment resolution also focused on the issue of ignoring judicial orders by the executive branch. A notable example was the deportation case of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Garcia was deported to a prison in El Salvador by federal officials on March 15, 2025.“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. To permit such officials to freely ‘annul the judgments of the courts of the United States’ would not just ‘destroy the rights acquired under those judgments’; it would make a solemn mockery’ of ‘the constitution itself.’” “You have no mandate,” Congressman Green stood up and yelled at President Trump during his State of the Union Speech on March 4. After the incident, Republicans who control the U.S. House considered sanctioning Rep. Green, but they did not complete an action against him.

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Affordable Childcare Remains a Barrier: Solutions in New Report

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — We also still haven’t put a dent in affordability for working families. That’s why we urgently need increased funding and new solutions.”

Published

2 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

While America’s childcare supply grew nationally, the price of that care continues to rise—placing affordable, high-quality care out of reach for many families. A new report released by Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA), Child Care in America: 2024 Price & Supply, shows that despite promising signs of increased supply, affordability remains a major barrier — and underscores the need for increased sustained federal and state investment.

From 2023 to 2024, the number of childcare centers increased by 1.6% (to 92,613) and the supply of licensed family childcare (FCC) homes increased by 4.8% (to 98,807). The national growth in FCC homes’ supply is driven largely by four states (CA, KS, MA, VA) and is especially notable as it reverses a year-long downward trend.

At the same time, the national average price for childcare rose by 29% from 2020 to 2024, outpacing inflation and exceeding other major family household expenses like rent or mortgage payments in many states. Childcare is now so expensive that it consumes 10% of a married couple with children’s median household income and a staggering 35% for a single parent. In most states, families pay more for childcare than rent, mortgage payments, or in-state university tuition.

“Childcare supply is increasing, and that is a win—but it’s not enough,” said Susan Gale Perry, Chief Executive Officer of CCAoA. “Recent federal and state pandemic-era investments have stabilized and grown supply in some places, but a significant supply gap still exists — especially in rural communities and for infants and toddlers. We also still haven’t put a dent in affordability for working families. That’s why we urgently need increased funding and new solutions.”

CCAoA’s Childcare in America: 2024 Price & Supply report also found that:

The average price of childcare increased by 29% from 2020 to 2024, outpacing the national inflation rate of 22%.
In 45 states plus Washington, DC, the average annual price of center-based childcare for two children exceeded mortgage payments, in some states by up to 78%.
In 49 states plus Washington, DC, the price of center-based childcare for two children exceeded median rent payments ranging from 19% to over 100%.
In 41 states plus Washington, DC, infant care in a center cost more than in-state university tuition.

CCAoA urges policymakers to increase childcare funding at both state and federal levels to maintain the momentum of growing supply, address rising prices, and expand access to childcare for families. Federal funding increases have fallen short of the need and our research shows that total state investments in child care or preschool vary widely from state to state, putting children, families, and communities across America on an uneven playing field. Further, targeted investments in childcare supply building and stabilization and childcare workforce recruitment and retention strategies are essential to help sustain an adequate supply of high-quality childcare options nationwide.

Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) is the only national organization that supports every part of the childcare system. Together with an on-the-ground network of people doing the work in states and communities, it helps America become child care strong by providing research that drives effective practice and policy, building strong child care programs and professionals, helping families find and afford quality child care, delivering thought leadership to the military and direct service to its families, and providing a real-world understanding of what works and what doesn’t to spur policymakers into action and help them build solutions.

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Sex, Coercion, and Stardom: Diddy Case Mirrors Music’s Ugly History

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — It started with a Reddit post that didn’t just speculate on Diddy’s fate but questioned the very foundations of the culture that made him

Published

2 days ago

May 19, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

As Sean “Diddy” Combs faces a federal sex trafficking case and the slow unraveling of his once-untouchable legacy, a larger question looms: Is this the moment the music industry finally confronts its darkest secrets?

It started with a Reddit post that didn’t just speculate on Diddy’s fate but questioned the very foundations of the culture that made him: “How much damage could Diddy do to the state of hip hop?” the user asked. “Supposedly, he has incriminating evidence against those who attended his parties. The same parties that had a lot of bad things happen, to say the least.” The implication was chilling—if Diddy were to cooperate with federal authorities, the fallout might not stop at his feet. Names floated in the post—Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Usher, Justin Bieber—aren’t confirmed in any court filings, but their inclusion highlights the breadth of Diddy’s influence and the potential reach of any revelations. If even a fraction of the speculation proves true, the reverberations wouldn’t stop at hip-hop—they’d hit every corner of the music industry. For his part, Combs denies all allegations. His legal team has described the now-infamous “freak-offs” as consensual encounters, part of his non-monogamous lifestyle. But prosecutors allege something much more sinister: a criminal enterprise powered by the machinery of his music and business empire—one that trafficked women, coerced labor, obstructed justice, and used influence and intimidation to maintain control. Still, for all the headlines Combs generates, his alleged crimes do not exist in isolation. The music industry has long tolerated, enabled, and even glamorized behavior that would trigger career-ending consequences in other arenas. Diddy’s story might be shocking—but it’s not new.

Rock music has its own rogue’s gallery. Jerry Lee Lewis nearly destroyed his career in 1958 after marrying his 13-year-old cousin. Elvis Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu when he was 24 and later moved her into his home in Memphis. In more recent years, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler faced (and ultimately evaded) a lawsuit from a woman who says he sexually assaulted her in the 1970s when she was 17. A judge dismissed the case due to the statute of limitations. Phil Spector, the genius producer behind the “Wall of Sound,” died in prison after being convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson. Gary Glitter was convicted of possessing child pornography and later child sex abuse. Kid Rock and Creed frontman Scott Stapp were filmed with strippers in a sex tape that leaked online in 2006. A new biography of the Rolling Stones claims Mick Jagger had sexual relationships with at least two of his male bandmates, raising further questions about the power dynamics inside even the most celebrated groups.

Journalist Ann Powers, writing for NPR, once noted that the “history of rock turns on moments in which women and young boys were exploited in myriad financial, emotional and sexual ways.” Powers added: “From the teen-scream 1950s onward, one of the music’s fundamental functions has been to frame and express sexual feelings for and from the very young… relating to older men whose glamour and influence encourages trust, not caution.” This brings the spotlight back to Diddy—not just as an accused individual but as a symbol. He was once the archetype of success: Harlem-born mogul, founder of Bad Boy Records, and kingmaker behind artists like Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Ma$e, 112, and French Montana. He transformed hip-hop into a global business and amassed influence far beyond the recording booth. He sold more than 500 million records, earned multiple Grammy Awards, and was honored by MTV, Howard University, and the City of New York—until those honors were swiftly revoked after a video surfaced showing him physically assaulting singer Cassie Ventura. Ventura, his longtime partner and protégé, has accused Combs of brutal physical abuse and psychological control. Her lawsuit and the video evidence ignited a wave of allegations from other women and men, describing similar patterns of coercion, manipulation, and fear. “This is not just about bad behavior. This is about systemic exploitation and abuse made possible by fame, money, and silence,” said one advocate for survivors in the entertainment industry.

While hip-hop has long been a target of criticism for misogyny and violence, what’s now being laid bare is a broader, genre-defying truth: from rock and pop to hip-hop and beyond, the music industry has operated for decades without accountability for its biggest stars. “Sex isn’t the problem,” one Reddit user responded. “Coercion via job opportunities is.” Another added, “Zero [impact], just like R. Kelly and MJ did zero to R&B,” referencing the R&B superstar’s conviction and Michael Jackson’s controversial legacy. Others argued hip hop would endure, regardless of Combs’ fate. Maybe it will. But the Diddy scandal pulls back the curtain—not just on the parties, the rumors, or the headlines—but on an industry-wide culture that has, for too long, allowed power to shield predation. As one survivor put it outside a recent court appearance: “This isn’t just a hip hop problem. It’s not even just a music problem. It’s a power problem.” And now, the music industry has to decide: Will it finally tune in, or will it keep playing the same old song?