| Charting Progress for
Babies in Child Care About this project |
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Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care
Policy Framework Summary
January 2008
by Rachel Schumacher, Elizabeth Hoffmann, and Anne Goldstein
State
policies can promote the quality and continuity of early childhood experiences
and positively impact the healthy growth and development of babies and toddlers
in all child care settings. Research
has shown that the quality of the relationship between children and
those who care for them influences every aspect of young children’s
development, including intelligence, language, emotions, and social competence.
States can implement child care licensing, subsidy, and quality policies that
improve the opportunities for babies and toddlers in child care to experience
the nurturing, responsive care that will help them thrive.
The Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care project is a
multi-year effort to identify state policies that support the healthy
development of infants and toddlers in child care settings, and to build an online
resource to help states implement
these policies. The Policy Framework
draws on the expertise of more than a hundred policymakers, researchers, and
advocates at the state and national levels. The Framework sets forth four key principles
that establish the foundation of supports that all babies and toddlers in child
care need, as well as 15 recommendations that state
child care licensing, subsidy, and quality policies should address. Each
recommendation corresponds to a key principle, reflects a desired goal, and is
followed by a set of policies that may help states move toward that
goal. The online resource will provide a research-based rationale for each
recommendation.
|
Note:
Several different terms exist in the child care field to refer to the
places where children receive child care and the people who care for
children. For the purposes of this document, we will use the following
definitions:
Child care
providers (providers):
those who care for infants and toddlers in center-based child care
programs and family child care homes, who are part of the formal system
of child care, are usually licensed by the state, and who require
payment for the care they provide.
Caregivers:
family, friend, and neighbor caregivers who may not think of themselves
as part of the formal child care system, who are often not licensed or
registered with the state, and who may or may not accept payment for the
care they provide. |
Babies and
Toddlers in Child Care Need:
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR STATE POLICIES
Each
recommendation is presented with the corresponding principle and reflects a
desired goal. Underlined recommendations link to a research-based rationale for
that recommendation.
Principle - Babies in child care need:
Nurturing, responsive providers and caregivers they can trust to care for them as they
grow and learn.
States should:
1)
Establish
what providers and caregivers should know to care for babies and toddlers:
Establish a core body of knowledge, skills, and expertise that providers and
caregivers need in order to give babies and toddlers quality care, based on
current research on social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development.
2)
Ensure
that providers and caregivers for babies and toddlers have access to education,
training, and support: Ensure access to specialized
professional development and support systems for those working with infants and
toddlers, including participation in higher education programs, ongoing
community-level training, and family support strategies, so that infant and
toddler providers and caregivers in all settings can meet the state’s core body
of knowledge and education standards.
3)
Support
continuous relationships between providers and caregivers and the children they
care for, from when they enter child care to age three:
Provide information and supports for providers and caregivers to develop
nurturing, responsive, and continuous relationships with children from when
they enter child care to age three.
4)
Promote
competitive compensation and benefits for infant and toddler providers:
Promote competitive compensation linked to education and experience, as well as
health care benefits, to attract and retain highly skilled infant and toddler
providers.
5)
Recruit,
maintain, and support diverse and culturally sensitive infant and toddler
providers and caregivers: Ensure the diversity and
cultural competence of infant and toddler providers and caregivers to meet the
needs of the state’s children under three and their families.
Principle - Babies in child care need:
Healthy and
safe environments in which to
explore and learn.
States should:
6)
Ensure
that babies and toddlers in centers are in small groups with sufficient numbers
of providers: Ensure that infants in center-based programs
are cared for in groups no larger than six, with ratios of one child care
provider to no more than three infants, and that toddlers are cared for in
groups no larger than eight, with ratios of one provider to no more than four
toddlers.
7)
Ensure
babies and toddlers in family child care are in small groups with sufficient
numbers of providers: Ensure that no more than two
children under age two be cared for by a
family child care provider at one time, and that group size not exceed
six children (including all children related to the provider).
8)
Require
training and provide supports on health and safety issues critical for babies
and toddlers: Ensure that all infant and toddler
providers and caregivers receive health and safety training and necessary technical
assistance relevant to care of this age group, including specific instruction
on back-to-sleep, hand-washing, bathing, holding, feeding, comforting,
diapering, and providing responsive caregiving for infants and toddlers, and
require training prior to child care subsidy receipt.
9)
Monitor
and provide technical assistance to infant and toddler providers:
Conduct regular monitoring of infant and toddler child care centers and family
child care settings and provide technical assistance to help providers with
compliance.
Principle - Babies in child care need:
Parents,
providers, and caregivers supported
by and linked to community
resources.
States should:
10) Partner with parents of babies
and toddlers in child care: Promote partnerships with parents
and encourage parent involvement with center-based and family child care
providers of infant and toddler child care.
11) Screen vulnerable babies and
toddlers in child care for health and developmental delays: Make appropriate health, mental health, and
developmental screenings and follow-up available for vulnerable infants and
toddlers through connections with all infant and toddler providers and
caregivers.
12) Link necessary services for
vulnerable babies and toddlers to child care settings:
Link comprehensive health, mental health, and family support services for
vulnerable babies and toddlers to all child care settings, and provide
culturally and linguistically appropriate service information to parents,
providers, and caregivers.
Principle – Babies in child care need:
Their families to have access to quality options
for their care.
States should:
13)
Build the supply of high-quality
infant and toddler child care: Build the supply of
high-quality child care settings for all babies and toddlers, with a special
focus on underserved communities, including those in low-income, rural, and/or
immigrant and language minority communities.
14)
Promote stable, quality care for
babies and toddlers through subsidy policy: Use state
child care subsidy policies to support stable, continuous access to the highest
quality providers and caregivers for infants and toddlers in low-income
families.
15) Provide culturally and
linguistically appropriate information on choosing infant and toddler child
care: Provide all parents of infants and toddlers with culturally and linguistically appropriate information
on choosing high quality care and subsidy eligibility.
The
Policy
Framework was developed by
Rachel Schumacher and Elizabeth Hoffmann of CLASP; and Anne Goldstein, a
consultant for ZERO TO THREE; during the first year of the multi-year Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care
project. For more information about Charting
Progress, please contact:
Rachel
Schumacher, Senior Fellow, CLASP – 202-906-8005, rschumacher@clasp.org
Elizabeth
Hoffmann, Policy Analyst, CLASP – 202-906-8008, ehoffmann@clasp.org
The Center for Law and Social Policy
(CLASP) is a national nonprofit policy, research, and advocacy organization
that works to improve the lives of low-income people. CLASP’s mission is to
improve the economic security, educational and workforce prospects, and family
stability of low-income parents, children, and youth and to secure equal
justice for all.
ZERO TO THREE's mission is help professionals, policy makers, and parents to
promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers.
Charting
Progress Policy Framework Summary © 2008, Center for Law and Social Policy and
ZERO TO THREE, All Rights Reserved.