Gov. Roy Cooper made an announcement on January 9th that North Carolina will receive $56 million in federal funding over the next seven years to support children’s health and well-being, improve access to high-quality early learning for families across the state and invest in the state’s early childhood workforce. The federal funding is one of the state’s largest infusions of new dollars in North Carolina’s early childhood system.makes what he calls a “major” early childhood funding announcement and discusses early childhood education needs with teachers in Cary. Watch the announcement and learn more at the Governor’s office website.

“An Ounce of Prevention ~Preventing Injury” the Winter 2019/2020 issue of the E-News includes:

1. News from the NC Resource Center
2. When a Medication Error Occurs
3. Active Supervision
4. Winter Weather
5. Child Passenger Safety
6. Pearly Whites – Make Them Sparkle!
7. Calendar
8. References

Check it out!

With funding from The JPB Foundation, the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), and the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) has launched the Lead-Safe Toolkit for Home-Based Child Care.

There is no safe level of lead for children. Adverse health effects, including IQ deficits and learning and behavioral problems, occur at low levels of exposure to often invisible sources of lead.

The Lead-Safe Toolkit offers a variety of resources to help home-based providers reduce lead hazards in their child care homes. Toolkit contents include:

• Poster for display in family child care home.
• List of science-based, user-friendly lead prevention resources.
• Lead prevention policies and worksheets, with easy-to-follow steps for finding out if lead hazards exist in the home and what to do to reduce any exposures.

View full press release!

Also, Eco-Healthy Child Care® helps early childhood learning environments to be as healthy, safe and green as possible by reducing children’s exposure to toxic chemicals. Check out their factsheet on lead!

The North Carolina Child Care Health Consultant (CCHC) Association 2019 Annual Conference registration is open! The theme this year is “Planting the Seeds of Healthy Child Care.”

Conference details:

• Where: Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, NC
• When: Monday, October 14 (half-day) and Tuesday October 15 (full day)
• Keynote Speaker: Dr. Betty Rintoul, Ph.D. “Adult Resilience: Building Your Bounce!”
• What: Agency updates, Breakout sessions, Annual CCHC Association meeting, and more…..

Click on the conference brochure for additional information. Hope to see you there!

The summit was broadcast on-air via the North Carolina Channel and through a livestream provided by UNC-TV. Recordings of the NC Early Childhood Summit are available now at: NC DHHS Early Childhood website.

Experts in childhood health, education and child welfare spoke, including:

• North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper,
• former Gov. Jim Hunt,
• NC DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, and
• Dr. Jack Shonkoff from the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University.

They and others encouraged the crowd to take action to improve outcomes for young children.

Leaders from across the state in early childhood health, education and child welfare launched the NC Early Childhood Action Plan at a summit on Feb. 27 in Raleigh. The plan includes 10 statewide goals around early childhood health, development, and learning.

• Goal 1: Healthy Babies
• Goal 2: Preventive Health Services
• Goal 3: Food Security
• Goal 4: Safe and Secure Housing
• Goal 5: Safe and Nurturing Relationships
• Goal 6: Permanent Families for Children in Foster Care
• Goal 7: Social-Emotional Health and Resilience
• Goal 8: High-Quality Early Learning
• Goal 9: On Track for School Success
• Goal 10: Reading at Grade Level

Congratulations to Chatham Child Care Health Consultant, Dorothy Rawleigh! She received the Public Health Staff Recognition Award through the NC GlaxoSmithKline Foundation’s 2018 Child Health Recognition Awards program. The award was presented at the NC Public Health Association conference in December 2018. This award recognizes her work on developing partnerships resulting in healthier food, higher immunization rates, and better emergency preparedness planning in child care facilities.

Additionally, the Chatham County Public Health Department Immunization Program was recognized with a NC GlaxoSmithKline Foundation Child Health Recognition Award. Chatham County regularly ranks number one in the state in immunization rates among children ages 0 to 36 months. The Chatham County Health Department achieved this by blending policy changes, training, tracking, feedback gathering, and follow-up with child care facilities.