Outline of Georgia Georgia State Profile

 
  • Licensing: Georgia child care regulations do not require child care facilities to engage the services of child care health consultants (CCHCs).
  • Funding: Georgia has funded CCHC services in the past using a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) grant. However, the state is planning to utilize braided funding from the Department of Human Resources’ (DHR) Division of Public Health (DPH) and Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL).
  • Auspices: DPH/Family Health Branch is the lead agency for CCHCs within the state.
  • CCHC Role: CCHCs tailor their services to meet the needs of each child care facility they serve. These services include: health input in planning for the development of child care programs and the inclusion of children with special needs; the development of health, safety, and emergency policies and procedures; the management of child care issues such as infectious diseases and injuries; provision of health education and wellness programs for children, parents, and staff; and guidance and technical assistance (TA) on new developments in health and safety issues.
  • CCHC Training: DPH/Family Health Branch provides comprehensive CCHC training to individuals who are interested in providing health consultation for child care settings. Through its Childcare Advantage Network, Georgia State University School of Nursing offers CCHC training that enables public health nurses to provide health and safety guidance for child care programs.
  • Website: The Healthy Child Care Georgia website includes information about CCHC services and training, and it provides contact information that enables providers to reach local CCHCs around the state.

History and Development

The development of the CCHC network within the state began with the implementation of Healthy Child Care Georgia (HCCG). The network continues to expand, and infrastructure is being built with the integration of select HCCG objectives into Early Childhood Comprehensive System (ECCS) activities.

The DPH/Family Health Branch conducted a pilot project in Rome County using CCHC services in early care and education (ECE) settings. The pilot initiated an assessment of effective, cost-efficient methods to implement a statewide CCHC model. The DPH/Family Health Branch currently has two child care health consultation contracts in place with Floyd and Bartow counties and Head Start. Nurses in the Northwest Georgia Health District (Floyd and Bartow counties) have CCHC training and provide consultation to child care programs.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

  • Funding: Identifying prospective funding streams has been a challenge for Georgia. In the face of budget cuts, this has become more difficult over time. In response, DPH/Family Health Branch has begun to develop proposed models to fund and sustain CCHC services on the local level statewide.

Ingredients for Success

  • Partnerships: Bright from the Start: DECAL and DPH/Family Health Branch have partnered to address the need of child care providers in all of the counties within the state to have equitable access to CCHC services.
  • Increasing CCHC Providers: Georgia plans to enlarge the pool of qualified CCHC providers by utilizing the Iowa model that focuses on capacity building at the community level through training and support of registered nurses.

Moving Forward

  • Representing Stakeholder Needs: Georgia will work to increase child care providers’ access to CCHCs in their local area.
  • Continued Network Development: Georgia will continue to build infrastructure by further developing the network of CCHCs through strategic planning and building local sustainability.

Top

Information as of August 2006