Jill's Little Sprouts Offers Another Childcare Option

Oct 13

In August, Rosman’s Jill Swartz opened Jill’s Little Sprouts, the county’s currently only licensed home childcare center.

Becoming a licensed Family Child Care Home (FCCH) was made possible, Swartz said, thanks to the financial assistance and mentoring guidance of Smart Start of Transylvania County (SSTC), a nonprofit organization that works to help the county’s youngest residents thrive. Swartz said due to state law, without licensing, legally she was only permitted to care for two children at a time.

With her new licensure, she can now care for up to five children ages 0 to 5 and three school-aged children after school, per day, in her home. In addition, she can now accept government subsidies that help pay for children whose families are approved for financial assistance.

“One of the reasons why it was so important to me to get licensed, was so that I can accept vouchers,” said Swartz. “I was a single mom for years, so I know what it’s like. (Some families) can’t afford to pay the full fee that (child) cares are charging so I wanted to be able to meet the needs of everybody and not just a select few.”

Swartz currently has a combination of single and married parents. In addition to accepting childcare vouchers, the new license also permits her to be financially reimbursed for qualifying food and formula to help offset the costs of her business.

Swartz has plenty of experience with children, having worked as a babysitter and nanny since she was 11 years old and later in childcare centers and nurseries. She has two grown biological sons who have moved out and one 14-year-old daughter who lives with her, adopted through foster care when she was 2 years old.

“I was a foster parent for many years and I adopted my daughter from there,” she said.

Swartz’s announcement follows the recent SSTC initiative to increase the number of high quality and affordable childcare options available by supporting and uplifting home-based childcare centers (HBCCs). Jill’s Little Sprouts serves as an example of what home childcare can become when given access to equitable resources, according to Deb Tibbetts, SSTC’s executive director, who hopes to see many more licensed home-based centers established in Transylvania County.

Read the full article here, written by Aiyanna Lollis, SSTC's Awareness Coordinator.

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