A Center for American Progress report confirms that 46 percent of children under age 6 in the United States live in a “child care desert,” a designation based on census and state licensing data. In remote rural areas, that number climbs to 70 percent. North Carolina has long struggled with child care shortages. State estimates show that 44 percent of families live in a child care desert, while recent reports indicate the state lost 113 child care programs in 2025 alone, with closures hitting rural communities especially hard.
But maps only tell part of the story.
A child care desert only considers licensed, state-approved child care programs. A community earns that designation when there are more than three young children for every available spot in a licensed program. What those numbers cannot capture is the grandmother who has cared for neighborhood children for years, the neighbor opening her door at 5 a.m. so a nurse can make her shift, or the woman running a child care program from her living room with a waiting list longer than any licensed center nearby.
These are Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) providers: informal caregivers who have long filled child care gaps in communities the maps label barren.
Consider Olga Grays, a licensed family child care educator. She began caring for children informally in 2005 when a neighbor couldn’t find available care. What started as one family’s solution grew into a licensed program serving 12 children, including foster children and families in transition that no area centers were equipped to reach. Though Olga lives in a child care desert, she was already meeting her community’s needs long before policymakers recognized her work. The desert wasn’t empty. The maps simply failed to count the women already providing care.
But invisibility is only part of the problem. The licensed home-based educators who do appear on those maps are disappearing. Women make up 95 percent of the family child care workforce. They provide flexible care for infants, toddlers, and families with nontraditional schedules—often serving communities where other licensed options simply don’t exist. But without systematic improvements to working conditions, benefits, and retirement security, the next generation of educators is not coming. When experienced educators leave, and no one replaces them, the desert grows.
According to the National Association for Family Child Care’s (NAFCC) 2025–2026 annual workforce survey, 48 percent of family child care educators work more than 60 hours per week, and 35 percent earn less than $10 per hour. Compensation alone won’t solve the problem. Without professional development, benefits, and sustainable business supports, too few new educators are entering the field to replace those retiring.
The Center for American Progress rightly calls for greater investment in a mixed-delivery child care system that includes family child care homes—the fastest solution to fulfill supply and demand. North Carolina’s child care leaders have warned that licensed child care is expected to reach a record-low supply as closures continue to outpace new programs. Expanding access will require more than opening new centers. It also means helping family child care educators remain in business and supporting new providers who want to enter the field. When child care deserts are measured only through licensed programs, policy often prioritizes building new infrastructure over sustaining the providers already serving those communities. As reimbursement rates fail to cover the true cost of care, those educators close their doors, deepening the very shortages policymakers are trying to solve.
Expanding home-based care requires reimbursement rates that reflect the true cost of care, business supports comparable to those available to larger programs, and a licensing pathway that helps informal caregivers become licensed rather than creating barriers.
The care has never come from a policy brief. It came from women who have opened their hearts and doors to other families. For North Carolina, protecting access to child care means protecting the providers who already serve families every day. Strengthening family child care won’t just preserve existing capacity; it will help ensure communities across the state have a sustainable foundation for future growth.