The Community and Public Health Environmental Initiative (CPHEI) will assist 51 Head Start (HS) Centers to obtain Eco-Healthy Childcare (EHCC) certification based on their use of environmentally healthy practices including promoting good air quality, green cleaning, recycling, safe pesticide use, and preventing lead exposure.This project was developed to evaluate a new approach to work with staff from seven HS centers interested in EHCC certification.

At our initial visit, we conducted an assessment using the EHCC checklist. The Center director independently completed the checklist and submitted it to us. Two to three weeks later, we shared our initial results with Center staff and provided two one-hour education programs focused on environmental health and safety practices found lacking in the Center. Staff members completed pre- and post-education knowledge tests to assess their learning. We revisited the Center four weeks later to re-evaluate environmental health practices and to determine if changes made by Center staff would enable the Center to meet the requirements for EHCC certification.

Initially, no HS Center met criteria for certification. Initial environmental deficiencies were similar in all HS centers and included the use of toxic cleaning chemicals, aerosols, and lack of administrative policies for third party cleaning and maintenance. Most of the Centers’ self-reported checklist scores were lower than our scores. After classroom education, the average knowledge-test score for HS staff was 45% higher than the pre-education knowledge score. At the 4-week re-assessment, six out of seven HS Centers met certification criteria.

This evaluation will guide implementation of the EHCC program in Baltimore city HS Centers and will advise future implementation nationally.