What Can CCDF Learn from the Research on Children’s Health and Safety in Child Care?
What's Inside...
This report examines research on health and safety components that lead to better care and healthier outcomes for children. We discuss research on key CCDF health and safety categories such as prevention and control of infectious disease, safe buildings and physical premises, and health and safety training, as well as nutrition and physical activity, health and developmental screening and consultation, and mental health screening and consultation.
This is an excerpt from the full brief.
With large numbers of young children in nonparental care,
policymakers and researchers share a strong interest in
understanding and enhancing components of quality in child care and
early education settings that support children’s development
and ensure their school readiness. Children’s health and
safety in child care is an important component and an essential
basis of quality, since physical, cognitive, and social-emotional
development are inextricably linked and related to children’s
readiness for school. Children’s health, however, is an
undermeasured aspect of school readiness. A major goal of the Child
Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program, which provided child care
subsidies to a monthly average of nearly 1.7 million low-income
children in Fiscal Year 2010 through a block grant administered by
the Federal Office of Child Care, is to provide access to
high-quality care—built on a foundation that assures their
health and safety.
The statute for the CCDF block grant program requires lead
agencies in the states and territories to certify that state or
local laws are in place that protect the health and safety of
children in subsidized care in three broad areas: prevention and
control of infectious diseases (including age-appropriate
immunizations), building and physical premises safety, and minimum
health and safety training appropriate to the provider settings.
Additional statutory requirements support this overarching goal.