This series of studies seeks to broaden the understanding of the diverse home-based child care provider workforce through identifying categories of providers based on their beliefs about caregiving and their practices with children and families. Seven million children from birth to five receive care in home-based child care settings. However, relatively little is known about characteristics of home-based providers and how to effectively engage them in quality improvement initiatives. Through secondary analysis of the National Survey of Early Care and Education data on listed home-based providers, latent profile analysis is used to explore how providers group into profiles based on key characteristics related to their beliefs and practices, as well as additional provider characteristics that predict profile membership. A similar strategy is used to analyze a sample of licensed and unlicensed home-based providers in Delaware based on the results of a statewide survey. Finally, a multiple case study approach is used to further explore providers in each profile, specifically considering how they view their roles and the quality of the care they provide and to better understand their practices with children and families. (author abstract)