CCHC promotes and protects the health and safety of children in and out of home child care, and promotes collaboration and coordination with the child care resource and referral agencies and others with responsibilities for child care.
Implemented in July 2000, Healthy Start in Child Care is a Kids NOW Initiative to provide consultation on health, safety and nutrition to child care providers. Trained Healthy Start child care consultants from the local health departments participate in joint activities with the resource and referral agencies in their areas to ensure collaboration and coordination regarding health, safety and nutrition issues impacting the quality of child care.
The population to be impacted by Healthy Start in Child Care includes the children and their families receiving out of home child care. During the first five years, children of full-time working parents may spend more time in out of home child care facilities than the total hours spent in school from kindergarten to high school. This makes it critical to use this window of opportunity to provide accurate health, safety and nutrition information to parents and child care providers.
For more information, visit https://chfs.ky.gov/agencies/dph/dmch/ecdb/Pages/cchc.aspx.