Child Care Resources
Child Care Resources
WIIN Project: Testing for Lead in Drinking Water at School and Child Care Facilities. This project is to test drinking water for lead at Hawaii Schools and child care facilities is part of a nationwide program that was established by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act of 2016. As part of the WIIN Act, states were granted money to test drinking water for lead at schools and child care facilities (CCFs). This project is a collaboration between the Hawaii State Departments of Health, Education and Human Services. Selected CCFs were chosen for testing at no cost to the CCFs. More information about the project can be found on the Department of Health (DOH) website https://health.hawaii.gov/heer/environmental-health/highlighted-projects/WIIN/
Hawaii Child Care Nutrition Program (HCCNP) provides menu reviews for licensed facilities that do not participate in the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program and serve meals, and need a menu review completed to meet DHS licensing requirements. The HCCNP contract services also provide nutrition consultation and trainings for DHS regulated child care homes and centers. Click here to download the Menu Review Request form.
Resource List for Children age 0-5 years and Their Families
DHS, DOH, DOE, & EOEL Programs that Support Children’s Health and Development
DHS= Department of Human Services
DOH= Department of Health
DOE= Department of Education
EOEL= Executive Office on Early Learning
‘Ulu (breadfruit in Hawaiian) is a staple food.
Similarly, DHS, DOH, and DOE, and EOEL have staple programs and resources for families which address basic needs. Helping families with basic needs supports children’s health and development.
The ‘Ohana Nui concept (supported by DHS and DOH) includes a whole family approach in addressing basic needs:
- Housing
- Food & nutrition
- Health & wellness
- Economic supports & education
- Social capital
Executive Office on Early Learning (EOEL). The creation of EOEL in June 2012 provides government-wide authority to guide the development of a comprehensive and integrated statewide early childhood development and learning system. The mission of EOEL is to coordinate efforts to help ensure a solid foundation for Hawaii’s young children, prenatal to age five, by working with partners, families, and communities, and connecting policies, programs, and funding in relation to health, safety, early childhood education, and school readiness and success.
https://earlylearning.hawaii.gov/
Early Childhood State Plan 2019-2024.
The Plan is an overarching framework that will help coordinate efforts of the State, counties, and community by setting shared priorities and driving the need to collaborate and leverage resources to improve the lives of our keiki and their families.
https://earlylearning.hawaii.gov/hawaii-early-childhood-state-plan/
Developmental screenings (https://health.hawaii.gov/cshcn/hiileihawaii/)
What is a developmental screening?
A developmental screening can help families and their child’s doctor to know wher a child is developing like other children of the same age. The screen is a simple set of questions about what a child can do.
How is a child developing? Where can a child get developmental screening?
- Child’s Doctor or Health Care Provider
Talk with the child’s doctor about his/her development, especially if there are concerns. Health care providers usually perform a developmental screening when a child is 9, 18, 24, 30, or 36 months old as part of the well-child visit.
- Hi‘ilei Developmental Screening Program
Families may also enroll in Hi`ilei Developmental Screening Program to check how their child is developing.
| A note to parents: Your child’s doctor is your medical home. Make sure you take your child to well-child visits, talk to your pediatrician about how your child is doing, and share any concerns you may have about your child’s development. |
Where can families find more information?
Websites with Information and Resources for Families
Referrals for children with developmental concerns but not yet evaluated:
Age 0-3 years – refer to early intervention services (Department of Health)
Age 3-5 years – refer to preschool special education (Department of Education)
The Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) Program is a federally mandated program under Title XIX of the Social Security Act. This program provides preventive and comprehensive health services for Medicaid-eligible individuals under age 21. The EPSDT Program is provided to Medicaid-eligible infants, children and youth. The primary goal is to offer prevention, early diagnosis and medically necessary treatment of conditions. Medicaid-enrolled children under 21 years of age are eligible for EPSDT services. For more information on EPSDT services and how to get these benefits, please talk with your provider or the health plan you are enrolled in for help.
https://medquest.hawaii.gov/en/members-applicants/quest-integration-coverage/covered-services.html
The Hawaii Family Partnership Guidelines for Early Childhood Settings is a source document to guide early childhood child care providers and practitioners in their efforts to create and/or enhance ongoing, responsive and reciprocal relationships with the families enrolled in their programs. It is a set of guidelines that includes key principles and provides actions or strategies practitioners can use to engage more effectively with families.
https://earlylearning.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Family-Partnership-Guidelines.pdf
All children enrolled in licensed child care facilities are required to meet the immunization standards set forth by the State of Hawaii – Department of Health. https://hawaii.gov/health/Immunization/index.html
The Healthy Child Care Hawaii Project helps to connect health consultants with child care programs. Health consultants work with child care providers to promote the healthy development of young children in child care, increase access to preventive health services, and ensure a safe physical environment for children. They provide information and resource materials to child care providers, health consultants, and other agencies/programs on national health and safety performance standards, medical home, and health insurance. https://health.hawaii.gov/cshcn/hcch/
The Hawaii Child Care Nutrition Program under the University of Hawaii’s Cooperative Extension Service provides assistance, support and consultation to child care providers in meeting licensing requirements with regards to nutrition. Some of the goals are to provide foods and nutrition education, training, technical assistance and resources for licensed child care providers and to collaborate and partner with agencies, projects and programs to promote the goal of quality nutrition services provided by licensed child care providers. https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/NEW/HCCNP/
The Hawai`i Early Learning and Development Standards (HELDS) are a set of research-based standards that identify expectations of knowledge and behavior for children through a chronological continuum. The HELDS are organized based on the National Education Goals Panel framework around the following 5 domains: Physical Well-Being, Health, and Motor Development; Social and Emotional Development; Approaches to Learning; Cognition and General Knowledge; and English Language and Literacy. The HELDS domains describe what a normally developing child should be expected to do at 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, 48 months, and kindergarten entry. The HELDS are aligned with the HIDOE standards, including the Common Core State Standards. In October 2012, Governor Abercrombie and the Early Learning Advisory Board endorsed the HELDS. https://p3hawaii.org/
People Attentive to Children (PATCH)’s mission is to support and improve the quality and availability of care for young people of Hawaii. PATCH provides families with information and resources needed when looking for quality child care. They support the professional development of caregivers through training to improve the quality of care they are providing and to better understand the needs of the market. PATCH provides data and services to the community to maximize the quality of the care giving experience and to increase the number and quality of caregivers.
https://www.patchHawaii.org/
The Center on the Family (COF) is a unit within the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii. Their mission is to enhance the well-being of Hawaii’s families through interdisciplinary research, service, education, and community outreach. COF conducts applied and basic research on family issues and generates and disseminates research-based information that improves the quality of life of Hawaii’s multicultural families, including their children and elders. https://www.uhfamily.hawaii.edu/index.asp
Hawaii Children’s Action Network (HCAN) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the only one in the state of Hawaii solely committed to advocating for children. HCAN addresses the root causes of poverty and inequity and develop public policies that help children and their families. HCAN’s mission is to build a unified voice educating and advocating for Hawaii’s children. Over the years, the organization has founded numerous initiatives for Hawaii’s keiki, focusing education, advocacy, scholarships, research, and community building and outreach. https://www.hawaii-can.org/
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the nation’s largest organization and leading membership association for those working with and or on behalf of children, and are dedicated to improving the quality of programs for children from birth through age 8 years old. https://www.naeyc.org/
The Hawaii Association for the Education of Young Children (HAEYC) is a non-profit, voluntary membership organization composed of teachers, family child care providers, caregivers, directors, advocates and those committed to quality early childhood programs for children birth to eight. https://www.hawaiikeiki.org/
The Learning to Grow Project (LTG) under the University of Hawaii Windward Community College, provides statewide educational outreach services to families with children ages birth to 5 and their Family, Friend, and Neighbor (license-exempt) child care providers and DHS registered Family Child Care providers. Learning to Grow provides parents with information about child care options and the importance of the quality of the early learning environment. Learning to Grow provides child care providers with information about child development, providing quality child care, and supporting the needs of children and families. https://learningtogrowhawaii.org/
The Search Institute is committed to supporting educators, youth-serving organizations, faith communities, parents, researchers, and librarians in their effort to build a better world for children. They provide ideas, resources, connections, and examples of positive youth development drawn from Search Institute’s years of experience in the field. https://www.search-institute.org/
The Office of Child Care’s Child Care Technical Assistance Network (CCTAN) provides training and technical assistance to states, territories, tribes and local communities. This involves assessing Child Care and Development Fund grantees’ needs, identifying innovations in child care administration, and promoting the dissemination and replication of solutions to the challenges that grantees and local child care programs face. They help states, territories, tribes and local communities build integrated child care systems that enable parents to work and promote the health and development of children. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ/ta
The United States Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families through the Office of Child Care supports low-income working families through child care financial assistance and promotes children’s learning by improving the quality of early care and education and after school programs. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is an independent federal regulatory agency with a mission to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury or death from consumer products through education, safety standards activities, regulation, and enforcement. https://www.cpsc.gov/
The National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) is an international professional organization dedicated to promoting excellence in human care regulation and licensing through leadership, education, collaboration, and services. https://www.naralicensing.org/
The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education provides health and safety resources including training curricula, national standards, and regulations for parents, child care providers, regulations, and child care health consultants. It maintains a public access database of child care licensing regulations, including nutrition standards, for all 50 U.S. States and the District of Columbia. https://nrckids.org/
The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education provides a guide entitled, “Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards; Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, Third Edition (CFOC3), which is available on the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education website. https://nrckids.org/
The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education provides an “A-Z Child Care Information Links” which is a list of selected web sites providing health and safety tips and information applicable to child care settings. https://nrckids.org/RESOURCES/list.htm
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) conducts and communicates research to support high-quality effective early childhood education for all young children. Such education enhances their physical, cognitive, and social development, and subsequent success in school and later life. https://nieer.org/