Early Education and Child Care in Action

E-News for Health Professionals

An electronic newsletter for members of the AAP Section on Early Education and
Child Care and their child care partners

Click here to view past and current issues of E-News

Issue #6, April 2007

1. Message from the Chairperson Elaine Donoghue, MD, FAAP

2. Reports with Info/Suggestions to Guide Your EECC Efforts

• NACCRRA Ranks States on Child Care Standards
• How do States Use Their Child Care Subsidy Funds?
• Child Care Licensing, Relevance to Health and Safety
• Children with Special Needs in North Carolina Child Care Programs Survey Report

3. New Resources

• Recent E-News for Caregivers and Teachers Focuses on Child Passenger Safety
• NACCRRA Resources for Parents on High-Quality Care
• Building Awareness About the Benefits of CCHCs Webinar
• A Distance Learning Course – Oral Health in Child Care
• Pandemic Influenza Preparedness for Schools: A Multi-media Training Program

4. Upcoming Events

• Week of the Young Child
• American Indian and Alaska Native Child Care Conference
• Pediatric Academic Societies' Annual Meeting
• The Future of Pediatrics
• AAP Peds-21 Symposium

5. Funding Opportunity

• AAP Funding

1. Message from the Chairperson Elaine Donoghue, MD, FAAP:

Please Welcome the New Members Who Joined the Section since January 2007:
Gloria Anne Arand MD, FAAP
Camille Pascual Chittenden MD, FAAP
Sarah Corrinne Kline MD, FAAP
Yi Hui Liu MD, MPH, FAAP
Amanda Rodriguez-Murphy MD, FAAP
Marjorie S Rosenthal MD, FAAP
Kara Lynn Stewart MD, FAAP

This brings our current Section membership to 242, plus 22 nursing professionals!

Dear Members of the Provisional Section on Early Education and Child Care:

Many of you asked questions or offered suggestions when you completed our Section Survey online last Fall. We hope this E-News will provide you with the answers to your questions as well as a list of resources that are available to support your efforts to advocate for quality child care and educate others about child care health and safety practices. Click here to view common questions and relevant resources.

In addition, I would like to share with you the AAP Recommended Child Care Health and Safety Resources list. This health and safety resource list has been tailored to fit the needs of the Section members and other health professionals. The list includes websites, free electronic resources, manuals, books, publications, research articles, and evidence-based policies. Feel free to keep this handy and/or share it with your health and child care colleagues as needed!

The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies has just finalized a new 2-page checklist that parents can access online and take with them when they visit local child care centers. The questions in the checklist are based on up-to-date evidence regarding high quality child care. Click here for the checklist. This is an excellent resource to provide to parents.

The AAP early education and child care staff has worked with chapter leaders to identify AAP Chapter Child Care Contacts (CCCC) in almost every AAP state Chapter. Thank you very much to those of you who volunteered to serve as a Chapter Contact or who agreed to help support this person. We are still looking for CCCCs in Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Missouri, North Dakota, and Nevada. If you are interested (or know someone who might be interested in becoming a CCCC for these Chapters), please see the CCCC Job Description here and/or e-mail childcare@aap.org.

Click here to learn more about the role of the CCCC and to locate the CCCC in your state.

Finally, the Section Executive Committee has decided that the Early Education and Child Care in Action E-News for Section members and other interested professionals will be sent out on a quarterly basis (rather than monthly). Please watch for the next issue in July 2007, which will include information on upcoming Section events at the AAP National Conference and Exhibition (NCE) in San Francisco! The Section’s first official educational program is scheduled for Monday, October 29, 2007, in the afternoon, and our Section educational and networking dinner will be that same evening. Save the Date!

Sincerely,

Elaine Donoghue, MD, FAAP, Chairperson
AAP Provisional Section on Early Education and Child Care

2. Reports with Info/Suggestions to Guide Your EECC Efforts:

NACCRRA Ranks States on Child Care Standards
The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) recently released a report titled “We Can Do Better: NACCRRA’s Ranking of State Child Care Standards and Oversight.” This report measures and ranks each state based on 15 criteria. Results show that many states are not meeting basic health and safety requirements. To view your state profile, click here.

How do States Use Their Child Care Subsidy Funds?
The US Department of Health and Human Services Child Care Bureau recently released a report titled the "Child Care and Development Fund: Report of the State and Territory Plans for FY 2006-2007." This report summarizes each state’s plans and policies to help low-income families pay for child care. In addition, this report highlights strategies that can be replicated in other states to improve the quality and accessibility of child care programs. Although states are required to use 4% of their Child Care and Development Fund allocation to support efforts related to "quality", states report spending from 4% to 11% on quality efforts! The report also describes how states use their funds to support health and safety, including times when they pay for child care health consultation services. Print copies are available by contacting the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center at 800-616-2242 or info@nccic.org.

Child Care Licensing, Relevance to Health and Safety
State child care licensing regulations and related monitoring and enforcement efforts help provide a minimum baseline of protection regarding the health and safety of children in child care. The 2005 Child Care Licensing Study provides comprehensive data on the licensing and regulation of child care facilities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For example, did you know that the most common violations relate to 1) child-staff ratios, 2) supervision, 3) discipline/behavior management, and 4) health, safety, cleanliness, or nutrition?

Review this “Fast Facts” document for other report highlights.
Executive Summary
Final Report

Children with Special Needs in North Carolina Child Care Programs Survey Report
The March issue of Early Childhood News reported on new statistics about the steady increase of children with special needs in NC licensed child care centers and homes.  A recent survey by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute indicates that the number of programs with children with special needs has increased from 39% in 2003/2004 to 45% in 2005/2006. This is the second survey in the state to determine how many children with special needs are enrolled in licensed child care facilities. Click here to read the full report.

Exciting Things are Happening in Washington State!
Jill Sells, MD, FAAP, reports that she and her colleagues in Washington State have been very busy working to promote the health of young children through their pediatrician network and Docs For Tots Washington efforts. At the Washington State Docs for Tots website, you can find template resources, presentations, letters to the editor, op-ed and other media materials that can be used to advocate for high quality practices and funding to support the care of young children. In addition, there are a variety of reports and tools you can access, including a "Prescription for Early Learning", an audioconference that highlights ways pediatricians can partner with child advocates, and survey results identifying pediatrician opinions about what is most useful and needed.

3. New Resources:

E-News for Caregivers and Teachers Focuses on Healthy Behaviors
Did you know that the AAP early education and child care staff provides an E-News for Caregivers and Teachers too? The April 2007 Health and Safety E-News for Caregivers and Teachers focuses on Healthy Behaviors. Caregivers can learn the importance of being a good role model and how to promote good healthy habits in the children they care for. Feel free to share this electronic newsletter with your child care colleagues.

January E-News for Caregivers and Teachers Focuses on Child Passenger Safety
The January 2007 Health and Safety E-News for Caregivers and Teachers focuses on Child Passenger Safety and is particularly pertinent due to the latest safety alerts, the AAP E-Breaking News and the recent withdrawn report on infant car seats from Consumer Reports (due to major flaws in the testing procedures).

NACCRRA Resources for Parents on High-Quality Care
NACCRRA has published an easy-to-use booklet, Is This the Right Place for My Child?: 38 Research-Based Indicators of High-Quality Child Care. This comprehensive 24-page booklet describes the research and rationale behind select indicators of high-quality child care. As mentioned above, included is a 2-page checklist of questions parents can use to evaluate child care programs. Unlike most guidelines for selecting child care, this booklet explains why each question is important and how it relates to the quality of care. All of the questions are based on research about what is important to children’s health, safety, and development. Advise the parents you know to take a copy of this checklist to each child care program they visit!

Building Awareness About the Benefits of CCHCs Webinar
The Healthy Child Care Consultant Network Support Center is pleased to announce that a recording of the March 27th Webinar: Building Awareness of the Benefits of Child Care Health Consultation is now available for viewing on the NSC website. This web-based conference call provides ideas and resources to help you educate policymakers, and other state and community partners to promote child care health consultation. Call participants discussed how to build an advocacy plan, with examples from Connecticut and Washington State.

Training Opportunities

 A Distance Learning Course – Oral Health in Child Care
Encourage your child care health consultant colleagues to take part in an exciting new pilot project offered by the National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants (NTI). The Healthy Smiles online training curriculum aims to promote behaviors in the child care setting that support the oral health of children. This training is for child care health consultants who, once trained, will help child care facilities to improve their oral health practices and policies. The course consists of six sections on: tooth development, oral disease, prevention strategies, access to dental care, techniques for oral health promotion, and oral health for children with special health needs. The course is offered free-of-charge to all eligible CCHCs. Since it is a pilot project, participants are asked to complete two brief data collection forms. Completion of these forms will make participants eligible to receive CEUs for their participation. The total time needed to complete the course is approximately 2 hours, however, individuals may move at their own pace.

4. Upcoming Events:

Get Involved in the Week of the Young Child 2007: Building Better Futures for All Children
April 22 – 28, 2007

Every year the National Association for the Education of Young Children sponsors the Week of the Young Child to focus attention on the needs of young children and the importance of quality early childhood programs. You can participate by working with your local community to help plan and implement events anytime in April. For example, you could participate in a policy forum about child care licensing standards, you could write an article about health and safety risks that are not adequately addressed or enforced, or you could present at a workshop for child care providers, promote the importance of a medical home, or think of a new way to share information with parents regarding quality child care. Click here to contact your local NAEYC Affiliate office. Click here to find presentations and handouts you can customize for this purpose.

13th National American Indian and Alaska Native Child Care Conference
April 30 – May 2, 2007, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Pediatric Academic Societies' Annual Meeting
May 5 – 8, 2007, Toronto, Canada

The Future of Pediatrics: Community Pediatrics, Medical Home and Beyond
June 29 – July 1, 2007, at the Hilton, Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida

With the overall goal of improving child health, this conference will provide current information on clinical and practice management topics, with special offering for the community pediatrician. Conference highlights will include resources and strategies to enhance community involvement and partnerships, as well as opportunities to present and discuss successful projects and ideas. Through a variety of educational formats, the conference will address basic issues and recent advances in pediatric medicine, and participants will experience informal learning in small group settings, through interaction with faculty, and by networking with peers. Susan S. Aronson, MD, FAAP will present 2 sessions that relate to early education and child care: Rash Decisions: What Keeps Children Out of School/Child Care? and Child Care. Click here to download the conference brochure.

2007 Pediatrics for the 21st Century (Peds-21) Symposium Focuses on “Determinants of Child Health”
October 26, 2007, 12 – 5:30 pm, San Francisco, California

Every year at the AAP NCE, the Pediatrics for the 21st Century (Peds-21) Symposium Series is held to address emerging issues that will impact the practice of pediatrics and pediatric care. This pre-NCE event is free for NCE registrants and will begin on Friday, October 26th with a resident poster session from 12–1pm that is followed by the educational program from 1–5:30pm. This year, the symposium title is “Determinants of Child Health: The Role of the Pediatrician Community Pediatrics for the 21st Century” and will focus on Community Pediatrics, specifically on advancing the health of children through community health efforts and child advocacy. Participants will gain an understanding of the social, economic, and environmental factors that affect the health of children and learn about models for becoming engaged in community health work on a practical level.

5. Funding Opportunity:

Bookmark this Webpage for Up-to-date Funding Opportunities!
The AAP National Center on Medical Home Initiatives for Children with Special Needs provides information on a variety of funding opportunities from the Academy and other organizations, as well as links to other funding key contacts and resources. These are relevant for every project and don’t simply focus on only children with special needs.

Did you know that the AAP has a Health and Safety E-News for caregivers and teachers?

• See the current issue here.
• Sign up to receive these quarterly newsletters here.