Healthy Child Care New Mexico (HCCNM) continues to focus on child health and safety issues in New Mexico through the activities of the New Mexico SAFE KIDS Coalition.

• Licensing: New Mexico does not require child care health consultation for licensure of early care and education (ECE) providers.
• Funding: Title V funding is used for one FTE to staff the SAFE KIDS Coalition.
• Auspices: HCCNM was under the auspices of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD). Currently, the SAFE KIDS Coalition coordinator is funded through the Department of Health (DOH).
• CCHC Role: Currently, there are no child care health consultants (CCHCs) active in New Mexico. However, the SAFE KIDS Coalition coordinator performs many roles similar to CCHCs especially training for ECE providers.
• CCHC Training: The state does not provide CCHC training at this time.
• Website: HCCNM created a website to help disseminate health and safety information to ECE providers and parents. The site includes a calendar of training events on early childhood health and safety topics.

History and Development

During the Healthy Child Care America (HCCA) grant period, two CYFD staff participated in the National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants (NTI) training of trainers and returned to train ECE providers in New Mexico. Those staff are no longer active as CCHCs or involved in the Early Childhood Comprehensive System (ECCS) process. HCCNM focused on disseminating health and safety information to ECE providers. To that end, they collaborated with the SAFE KIDS Coalition to develop a curriculum—Improving the Safety of Child Care Environments. HCCNM coordinated training events for ECE providers, including an annual conference. To date, nearly half of the 8,000 home care providers in New Mexico have received the curriculum training. New Mexico SAFE KIDS Coalition continues this focus on training using the curriculum.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

• Funding: The primary barrier to the development of a CCHC network in New Mexico has been the lack of funding for this program.
• Lack of Coordination: The HCCNM project was under the auspices of CYFD, Family Nutrition Bureau which pursued goals of disseminating health and safety information directly to ECE providers. The additional goal of development of a CCHC network may have been more successful with better coordination and collaboration with the DOH.

Ingredients for Success

• Collaboration: The HCCNM project has been able to continue to some degree through the work of the SAFE KIDS Coalition.

Moving Forward

• SAFE KIDS Coalition: The SAFE KIDS Coalition is continuing to pursue HCCA goals by disseminating health and safety information, training to ECE providers and families, and promoting curricula on health and safety in child care and homes.
• Developmental Screening: The ECCS process established home visiting by public health nurses as the state’s top priority. One of their first steps toward building a home visiting system has been to design developmental screening tools for nurses to use so that children can enter school ready to learn. This helps set the stage for the second ECCS priority, early care and education.
• CCHC Training: By 2007, New Mexico SAFE KIDS Coalition hopes to provide CCHC training for home visitation programs.
• Home Day Care Safety Manual: The home day care safety manual will be revised in 2007 for use in home visitation programs and to train teen, foster and/or adoptive parents.

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Information as of August 2006

HCCC-NSC is a part of EDC’s Center for Children & Familites.
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This website was developed with funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under contract number HHSH240200535013C.