A patchwork quilt: Sustaining Child Care Health Consultation in Pennsylvania

Since its inception, the Early Childhood Education Linkage System (ECELS) of the PA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics has provided Child Care Health Consultation (CCHC) as defined in Caring for Our Children, the national standards for health and safety in out-of-home child care. Although supportive in principle, Pennsylvania's state agencies have been slow to embrace a comprehensive, state supported system for on-site consultation. In recent years, Pennsylvania has expanded and developed an increasingly sophisticated infrastructure to improve the quality of early learning systems within the state. The role of ECELS in these efforts is as a “keystone” in the state's quality improvement system. This role is played with a strategic and opportunistic approach, since insufficient funding has been available to establish the needed statewide network of compensated CCHCs.

Using a patch work of resources over 20 years of operation, ECELS has supported professional development for educators and health professionals, technical assistance, electronic and on-site child care consultation that has benefitted many children and families in early education programs in the state. The presentation will briefly review historic evaluation data and then describe several of the most recent grant supported initiatives coordinated by ECELS. These include one funded by the United Way of southeastern PA, one funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and one funded by a local private foundation. All of these initiatives share a common objective: to improve the quality of health and safety for Pennsylvania's young children.