Today we know more than ever about the importance of children's earliest years in shaping their learning and development. Yet, never before have the needs of young children and their families been more pressing. According to Harvard’s “Center on the Developing Child,” there are three basic foundations of lifelong health that are fundamental to early [...]
Starting this month, ADHS will be launching a project to screen water in many licensed child care facilities for lead. Our Child Care Licensing surveyors will collect water from a sample of drinking water sources at facilities while they’re out to conduct facility inspections. The surveyors will bring the water samples to our Arizona State [...]
This month our department shared the first monthly Empower Newsletter focusing on policy development and implementation of the Empower Standards. Empower is a collaborative effort throughout ADHS. The Bureau of Child Care Licensing enrolls centers and small group homes in Empower and monitors implementation. The Bureau of Nutrition and Physical Activity develops and provides materials, [...]
A couple of months ago I heard a story from a parent of a special needs kid who told me that she was trying to find a pre-school- but her kid was denied admission. She said that the facility told her that our licensing regulations wouldn’t allow the school to admit her child because he [...]
This week the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs gave us the National Best Practice Award for our Empower Program. As a refresher for those of you that aren’t familiar with Empower… it’s a program we started in 2009 that focuses on increasing healthy eating and active living in our licensed child care facilities… [...]
Ever since 911, there’s been an increased understanding that a strong disaster emergency and evacuation plan is required for any line of business. Child care is no exception. Over the last few months, our Child Care Licensing shop took the lead to develop and provide information and training to Arizona child care providers in effective short- and [...]
You probably remember how we shifted from general funds to fee-based inspection programs. The most controversial fee increase was for child care facilities, as the costs of inspecting child care facilities had been almost entirely subsidized by the state’s general fund. In the end, we found a way to use alternative funding sources to provide [...]
Our child care licensing & rules team, along with a long list of Stakeholders, have been working very hard over the last few months to put together a new list of criteria for operating a child care center. This week, their hard work paid off- and we were able to post a draft of our [...]
