State Policy Strategies for Reducing Environmental Exposures in Child Care Facilities

As the number of children in licensed child care has grown, so has public recognition of the importance of the child care setting to children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development. A variety of laws, regulations, and other policies establish standards for the approximately 300,000 licensed child care centers and child care homes across the United States.  These standards cover a wide array of elements for ensuring a healthy, safe, and enriching environment – from caregiver qualifications and program curriculum, to fire safety and nutrition.  In recent years, facility standards for child care have begun to address exposure to environmental hazards as well. In January 2015, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) issued a report, Reducing Environmental Exposures in Child Care Facilities: A Review of State Policy, which presents their research on how state laws, regulations, and programs address environmental health in licensed child care facilities.  The report focuses on several key indoor environmental quality issues – secondhand smoke, radon, carbon monoxide alarms, mold and dampness, ventilation and temperature, pesticides, lead-based paint, asbestos, other chemical exposures, and site/location hazards. For each issue, the report provides an overview of current policy, offers examples of state policy approaches, and describes selected non-regulatory initiatives that are being implemented by state agencies. This presentation will review the findings of the report and highlight opportunities for state policy to address key environmental exposures affecting young children.