Model Child Care Health Policies

Abstract

Significantly revised and updated, the new Model Child Care Health Policies, 5th Edition is a must-have tool to foster adoption and implemenation of best practices for health and safety in group care settings for young children. These settings include early care and education as well as before and after school child care programs. These model policies are intended to ease the burden of writing site-specific health and safety policies from scratch. They cover a wide range of aspects of operation of early education and child care programs. Child care programs of any type can use Model Child Care Health Policies by selecting relevant issues for their operation and modifying the wording to make selected policies appropriate to the specific settings. These settings include early education and child care centers, small and large family child care homes, part day-programs for ill children, facilities that serve children with special needs, school-age child care facilities, and drop-in facilities. The model policies can be adapted for public, private, Head Start, and tuition-funded facilities. All of the most commonly covered health and safety topics the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies found in state regulations are included in this guide.