The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC) has released the third edition of Caring for Our Children: National Health & Safety Performance Standards Guidelines for Early Care Education Programs. The guidelines were developed through the collaborative efforts of the NRC in partnership with the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

Often referred to as “The Standards,” this comprehensive publication is for all who care for young children in early care and education and who work toward the goal of ensuring that all children, from day one, have the opportunity to grow and develop appropriately, to thrive in healthy and safe environments, and to develop healthy and safe behaviors that will last a life time.

The recommended users are caregivers/teachers, early childhood systems, families, health care professionals, licensing professionals/regulators, policy makers, national organizers that issue childcare standards, departments of educations, states and localities that fund subsidized childcare, and university and college faculty of early childhood programs.

All of the standards are attainable and some may already have been reached while others can be implemented over time. In the third edition, there are 10 chapters with 686 standards and 39 appendices including 58 new standards and 15 new appendixes.
Look for:

• New standards on physical activity, limiting screen time, preventing expulsion, hand sanitizers, mental health and education, and more.
• Updated standards on nutrition including the new My Plate food icon, inclusion/exclusion criteria for illness, monitoring outdoor temperatures, disaster planning, use of non-toxic substances, and more.
• New appendices containing a signs and symptoms chart, my plate, a medication administration packet, a promoting breast feeding flyer, care plan, and more.
• New numbering system to differentiate the third edition standards from the second edition
• References and related standards that are placed with each standard for easy referral!

Caring for Our Children, National Resource Center for Health & Safety in Child Care & Early Education;
800-598-KIDS(5437); www.nrckids.org.