ADVICE TO USERS

Stepping Stones, 2nd Edition contains 233 standards selected as a subset of the 659 national health and safety performance standards in Caring For Our Children, 2nd Edition (CFOC). This subset includes the standards that have the greatest impact on disease, disability and death (morbidity and mortality) in out-of-home child care. To keep the document size manageable, Stepping Stones, 2nd Edition contains only the unaltered text of the selected standards without the rationale, comments or references and only those appendices directly mentioned in the text of the included standards.

Editor's notes indicate corrections required since CFOC, 2nd Edition was published. Many pertinent references appear in the rationale in CFOC, 2nd Edition and are therefore not included in Stepping Stones, 2nd Edition. Useful appendices that are not directly referenced in the text of the cited standards can be found in CFOC, 2nd Edition. Please consult the hard copy or the Internet version of Caring For Our Children, 2nd Edition (CFOC) at http://nrckids.org for the rationale, comments, references, cross-referenced standards and full set of appendices.

In Stepping Stones, numbering of references in the text of the standards and numbering of appendices appears verbatim as in CFOC, 2nd Edition, even though the references are not listed in Stepping Stones. Some users may have difficulty locating some of the references in scientific journals. The staff of the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care will help locate copies of cited references and address questions about how to use the print and Internet versions of CFOC, 2nd Edition and Stepping Stones, 2nd Edition.

Intended Audiences and Uses

Many users may find the Stepping Stones useful in promoting health and safety of children in early education and child care environments:

State licensing and regulatory agencies - to identify the standards for comparison with and improvement of state child care policies, practices, and regulations.

Child care providers - to improve the quality of child care operations and environment.

Parents - to inform and educate on health and safety features that they should look for in their child's early education and child care setting.

Resource and referral agencies - to advise parents and providers of important performance issues for quality child care.

Communities - to implement the Healthy Child Care America Campaign with its 10-Step Blueprint for Action. The Campaign promotes a partnership of families, child care and health care providers to support the healthy development of young children in child care and increase access to preventive health services and safe physical environments. Contact information on the Healthy Child Care America Campaign can be found in Appendix BB.

Format and Organization

The standards in Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs, 2nd Edition (CFOC, 2nd Edition), are numbered according to the chapter in which they are located. The same numbering system has been used for the 233 standards included in Stepping Stones, 2nd Edition to assist users in correlating the two documents. Chapter titles and associated numbering are:

Staffing (Standard numbers starting with 1)

Program: Activities for Healthy Development (Standard numbers starting with 2)

Health Protection and Health Promotion (Standard numbers starting with 3)

Nutrition and Food Service (Standard numbers starting

with 4)

Facilities, Supplies, Equipment and Transportation (Standard numbers starting with 5)

Infectious Diseases (Standard numbers starting with 6)

Children Who are Eligible for Services Under IDEA (Standard numbers starting with 7)

Administration (Standard numbers starting with 8)

As is true in CFOC, 2nd Edition, standards in this book have application to three types of out-of-home child care settings. Each standard in Stepping Stones, 2nd Edition lists which type of child care facility for which the standard is applicable. These are:

A Small Family Child Care Home provides care and education for up to six children at one time, including the preschool children of the caregiver, in a residence that is usually, but not necessarily, the home of the caregiver. The key elements are that this type of care takes place in a setting that is used both for child care and as a residence (often simultaneously) and that the total number of children is limited to a maximum of six at any one time. Family members or other helpers may be involved in assisting the caregiver, but often, there is only one caregiver present at any one time.

A Large Family Child Care Home provides care and education for between 7 and 12 children at a time, including the preschool children of the caregiver, in a residence that is usually, but not necessarily, the home of one of the caregivers. Staffing of this facility involves one or more qualified adult assistants so that the requirements specified in the child:staff ratio and group size standard are met. The key element that distinguishes this type of facility is the combined use of the premises as a residence and for child care (often simultaneously) and that the number of children in care requires more than one caregiver present at any one time.

A Center is a facility that provides care and education to any number of children in a nonresidential setting, or 13 or more children in any setting, if the facility is open on a regular basis. To distinguish a child care center from drop-in facility, a center usually provides care for some children for more than 30 days per year per child. In many cases, summer camps operate for more 30 days per year per child and, in fact, provide center-based child care.