Children's environmental exposures in early learning: Preventing harm through emerging resources, updated standards and state and national initiatives

In the 3rd and 4th years of a 5-year Health in all Policies (HiAP) cooperative agreement with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) supported national child care organizations in advancing environmental health best practices in child care settings. Within this initiative, CEHN collaborated with: the Association for Early Learning Leaders (AELL) – National Accreditation Commission, as they reviewed and edited their health and safety standards to better include indicators pertaining to children’s environmental health; the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC), as they created a collection of Caring for Our Children, 3rd Edition (CFOC3) standards relevant to environment health in the early care and education community; and the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) as they modified their 2014-2020 strategic plan to highlight environmental health as an important consideration for child care licensing officials. The process for accomplishing these achievements and their related impacts on the early learning environment will be discussed.