Presenter

Tom Copeland is the nation’s leading expert on the business of family child care. He is an independent consultant, trainer, author, and family child care advocate. Since 1981 he has helped hundreds of thousands of people understand complex business and tax issues.

From 1981 – 2009 Tom worked for Resources for Child Caring (RCC), a non-profit Child Care Resource and Referral Agency in St. Paul, Minnesota. From 1992 – 2009 he was director of Redleaf National Institute, the national center for the business of family child care, a division of RCC.

Since 2009 he has been an independent consultant. He offers a variety of workshops and webinars on business issues for family child care providers, trainers, and tax preparers. Each year he teaches thousands of family child care providers through live trainings and answers more than a thousand questions via email and phone.

In 2017 his blog was chosen as one of the top Child Care Blogs in the U.S. In 2014 his blog was chosen as one of the top 50 Money Management Blogs in the country by Direct Capital. 2004 he won the Advocate of the Year Award from the National Association for Family Child Care. In 1998 he won the Child Care Advocate of the Year award from the Minnesota Licensed Family Child Care Association. He has represented numerous child care providers in IRS audits and has won six US Tax Court cases.

He is the author of eleven books on the business of child care, all published by Redleaf Press.

Tom graduated from Macalester College (BA) in 1972 and from William Mitchell College of Law (JD) in 1980