In debates about child care and early education, the voices of providers are often missing. In this article, we report findings from a study exploring child care provider perspectives on how regulation and policy changes impact their ability to provide care. Data were collected from interviews and focus groups with home-based providers and center-based administrators (N = 55) in rural, urban and suburban New York counties. Four overarching themes emerged: undervaluation of child care providers, challenges faced by providers and the parents of the children they serve, regulatory disconnect, and discretionary implementation of laws and regulations. These findings suggest that without input from providers in the creation of legislation and regulations, policies may have unforeseen, inefficient, or even harmful results, such as an inability to match providers with open slots to families whose children are eligible for and in need of care. Based on these findings, we recommend developing mechanisms to enable and encourage participation of providers in the policymaking process, assisting providers in complying with regulations and providing quality care, and standardizing regulation enforcement and oversight to better align with the needs of families and the day-to-day realities of providing quality care.

中文翻译：

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育儿人员的声音：政策变化影响的探索性研究

在有关托儿和早期教育的辩论中，提供者的声音常常缺失。在本文中，我们报告了一项研究的结果，该研究探索了托儿服务提供者的观点，以了解法规和政策的变化如何影响他们的提供护理的能力。通过与纽约州农村，城市和郊区的家庭提供者和中心管理者（N = 55）的访谈和焦点小组收集数据。出现了四个总体主题：托儿服务提供者的价值低估，提供者及其所服务孩子的父母所面临的挑战，监管脱节以及对法律法规的自由实施。这些发现表明，在没有提供者参与立法和法规制定的情况下，政策可能会产生无法预料，低效甚至有害的结果，例如无法将提供者的空缺席位与子女有资格并需要照料的家庭相匹配。基于这些发现，我们建议开发一种机制，以使服务提供者能够参与并鼓励他们参与决策过程，协助服务提供者遵守法规并提供优质护理，并规范法规的执行和监督，以更好地满足家庭和日间的需求。提供优质护理的当今现实。