External Child Care Resources

California-Based Resources

• California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC)
  Dedicated to advancing excellence throughout the early care education profession by providing developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive, high quality, early education for all children through research, education, professional development, and advocacy.
• California Alternative Payment Program Association (CAPPA)
  Advocate for, and facilitates family access to, quality child care, supportive services, and early education and development programs.
• California Childcare Health Program
  The California Childcare Health Program offers a Health and Safety Checklist for Early Care and Education (ECE) Programs (PDF). The Health and Safety Checklist is a tool developed to assess key health and safety standards and identify ways to improve health and safety in ECE programs, and is accompanied by a Health and Safety Checklist User Manual (PDF).
• The California Child Care Disaster Plan is an Annex to the California State Emergency Plan, and supports child care providers to be ready for, respond to, and recover from an emergency.
• California Child Care Resource & Referral Network
  The California Child Care Resource & Referral Network promotes affordable, accessible quality care through research, education, policy, and advocacy.
• EveryChild California
  Promotes quality early childhood programs in California through the provision of education, technical assistance, and networking of administrators of publicly funded child development/early learning programs.
• California Emergency Medical Services
  The mission of the California Emergency Medical Services Authority is to ensure quality patient care by administering an effective, statewide system of coordinated emergency medical care, injury prevention, and disaster medical response.
• California Head Start Association (CHSA)
  Offers leadership and advocacy for the Head Start community, as well as, updates to the early care and education community about local and national legislation.
• California Preschool Energy Efficiency Program (CPEEP)
  Helps center-based child care and preschool facilities in replacing older, energy-intensive equipment with energy-efficient upgrades that help reduce operating costs.
• California Tribal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Program
  Provides assistance for the Indian Tribes of California including funds, tools, and resources necessary for each Tribe or Consortium to administer its own Tribal TANF program.
• Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH)
  The CERCH Research Program works to understand and reduce the risk of environmental threats to children's health, locally and globally.
  
• Center for Prevention and Early Intervention (CPEI)
  Provides training, technical assistance, and resource development for young children with disabilities and other special needs and their families
• Child Care Law Center (CCLC)
  Uses legal tools toward making high quality, affordable child care available to every child, family and community, while focusing particular attention to low-income families, families and children with disabilities and other special needs, and other families who face barriers in securing and maintaining quality care.
• Children Now
  A national organization for people who care about children and want to ensure that they are the top public policy priority.
• Community Care Licensing (CCL)
  Provides comprehensive information regarding licensing for child development centers and family child care homes.
• Fight Crime: Invest in Kids-California
  Offers crime prevention strategies, after-school programs for children and teens, mental health services for youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, and interventions to get troubled kids back on track.
• TrustLine Registry
  Helps ensure the safety of California’s children. License-exempt child care providers, including nannies and babysitters, who have passed a background screening will be entered into the Registry.

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Nationwide Resources

• Administration for Children and Families, United States Department of Health and Human Services (ACF)
  Responsible for federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities.
• Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL)
  Materials that provide parents and teachers with simple ways to enhance daily activities and routines with literacy specific opportunities.
• Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center
  Provides early learning programs with resources intended to assist them help young children develop the skills and knowledge they need to enter school ready to succeed.
• Express Lane Eligibility (ELE)
  A way to expedite enrollment into health insurance programs for large numbers of uninsured children, specifically those enrolled in other public programs.
• Healthy Child Care
  The Healthy Child Care program is a collaborative effort of health professionals and child care providers working to improve the early education and health and safety of children in out-of-home child care.
• Healthy Futures: Improving Health Outcomes for Young Children
  Through the Healthy Child Care program, the American Academy of Pediatrics has developed a curriculum designed for early education and child care professionals to manage infectious diseases. “PediaLink” online learning modules allow participants to learn independently in a web-based format.
• Local Family Child Care Associations
  A nationwide directory of family child care associations.
• Milestone Tracker
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched the Milestone Tracker, a free application for tracking a child’s development in a fun and easy way. The app adds to the suite of free, family-friendly materials available through the CDC Learn the Signs, Act Early program.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
  Dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8.
• National Indian Child Care Association (NICCA)
  The mission of the National Indian Child Care Association is to unify tribes and tribal organizations to promote high quality culturally relevant child care and development.
• National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education
  The National Resource Center's primary mission is to promote health and safety in out-of-home child care settings throughout the nation..
• Reading Rockets
  Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project that offers research-based and best-practice information on teaching kids to read.
• Talk, Read, Sing Together, Every Day!
  A suite of resources from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education that can help enrich children’s early language experiences beginning from birth. The information includes tip sheets for families, preschool teachers, and infant/toddler teachers and caregivers, as well as a fact sheet that highlights the evidence behind the benefits of being bilingual and embracing children’s home languages. All tip sheets are available in English and Spanish, and can be downloaded for free.
  
• Text4Baby
  The National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) has launched Text4Baby, a free mobile information service that provides pregnant women and new mothers with information to help them care for their health and give their babies the best possible start in life.
• Zero to Three
  Supports the healthy development and well-being of infants, toddlers, and their families.

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International Resources

• Learning Opportunities for Children Up to Age Four
  A series of video clips developed by the Department of Education in Zurich, Switzerland, shows parents and educators how to create learning opportunities out of everyday activities. The clips are available in 13 languages.

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