Childcare Landscape Study - Flipbook - Page 80
Davidson County Child Care Landscape Study Results
3
Home-Based Programs Are Operating at 98 Percent of Their
Licensed Capacity
Surveyed home-based child care programs in greater Davidson County report operating near
their licensed capacity limits, leaving virtually no room to serve additional families seeking
licensed home-based child care. To ensure the safety of children and the quality of child
care programs, licensing regulations set firm limits on the number of children who may be
present in a child care program at any given time.
The 14 home-based child care programs that responded to the Child Care Provider Survey
have a licensed capacity of 151 child care slots.c Across these programs, directors report that
121 full day-equivalent slots are currently occupied by children under age 5 and that just 27
full-day equivalent slots remain open and available to families seeking licensed home-based
child care in the region (see Figure 1).d Importantly, directors most commonly attribute these
few open slots to short-term turnover among children, suggesting that these few slots are
unlikely to remain open for an extended period of time.
Together, the sum of enrolled and open slots equals the full-day actual capacity among
home-based survey respondents, or the total number of full-day equivalent slots that could be
occupied today by either one child enrolled full time or multiple children each enrolled part
time. Across the responding programs, full-day actual capacity totals 148 child care slots, or
almost all (98%) of their collective licensed capacity (see Figure 1).e
Figure 1: Home-Based Child Care Enrolled Slots and Open Slots Compared to Licensed Capacity
Licensed
Home-Based
Child Care Slots
151
Total
Slots
Home-Based
Full-Day
Actual Capacity
148
Total
Slots
Occupied Slots 121
Open Slots 27
Source: Davidson County Child Care Provider Experience Survey. The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, 2025.
n=14. Notes: Enrolled, open, and licensed capacity slots are limited to programs that responded to the survey. In total, greater
Davidson County has 317 total home-based child care slots among 29 programs. The total number of enrolled and open slots
is unknown; however, we expect similar enrollment levels among the non-respondents as reported by the survey respondents.
c The 14 programs in the sample represent 48 percent of all licensed home-based capacity in the region.
d The exact number of open full-day equivalent slots is 26.5, with the .5 indicating an open part time slot. We round this
number to 27 for simplicity.
e Full-day actual capacity is typically lower than licensed capacity because in addition to an overall capacity limit, providers
are subject to age-group-specific ratio and group size limits depending on the distribution of ages served at the program.
Providers may also simply choose to serve fewer children than their licensed maximum, or may be limited by staffing
shortages or other constraints. Because in home-based settings one educator can serve multiple children of varying ages at
once, the difference between full-day actual capacity and licensed capacity may be smaller than in other child care settings.
Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center 2025
www.pn3policy.org
