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Office of Child Care Health and Safety Information and Training - Revised Standards for Licensed Child Day Centers (Effective October 13, 2021)

Guidance & Resources

Emergency Preparedness
Learn how to plan, organize and practice emergency procedures so that you will be able to keep children safe and calm if an actual emergency arises.

Family and Community Engagement
Learn how to enhance parent, family, and community engagement practices in your program. The Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) has a wealth of resources, strategies, assessments, newsletters, PD opportunities and more for building strong partnerships with families.

Fostering Healthy Social & Emotional Development in Young Children
Tips for Early Childhood Teachers and Providers

Low Interest Loan Program
The Virginia Small Business Child Care Financing Program (CCFP) is designed to assist Virginia child care providers in obtaining financing for fixed asset needs and educational materials.

Project Hope - Virginia’s Program for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
These resources provide an overview of issues related to the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness and resource to support these children and their families.

Screening: The First Step to Getting to Know a Child
The Early Childhood Health and Wellness portal on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) offers facts and tools about screening for early childhood staff and families.

Virginia Infant & Toddler Specialist Network
The ITSN provides on-site services that include individualized consultation, targeted training, classroom-focused mentoring, and feedback as well as resources and materials related to increasing the quality of care provided to infants and toddlers.

Shaken Baby Awareness/ Abusive Head Trauma
The Head Start - Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center ECLKC has an hour long video on Shaken Baby and Abusive Head Trauma as well as a PDF with additional resources on this subject. The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome is also a great resource.

The Pyramid Model
The Pyramid Model is a conceptual framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s healthy social and emotional development. The Pyramid Model was created by the Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL). This model is used to support the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Youth Children (TACSEI) and other organizations focused on positive behavioral support and interventions. Resources for the Pyramid Model include - Training Modules, Webinars, Book Nooks, and Parent Tools.

Virginia Child and Adult Food Program
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) provides nutritious meals and snacks that contribute to the wellness, healthy growth, and development of young children, and the health and wellness of older adults and chronically impaired disabled persons.  Participating institutions receive reimbursement by serving these nutritious meals to eligible individuals who are enrolled for care at participating child and adult care centers. CACFP also provides meals and snacks to children and youth who participate in afterschool care programs or reside in emergency shelters.

Publications & Resources

Best Practice Recommendations for the Prevention of Suspension and Expulsion of Young Children
Research indicates that high-quality early learning is a critical first step to creating equity in access to early education and ensuring that all children begin kindergarten with an equal opportunity to learn. Suspensions and expulsions of young children deprive them of enriching learning experiences and have a negative impact that extends into grade school and beyond. This document provides recommendations regarding best practice in implementing developmentally appropriate experiences fro children in child care programs (0-12 years) that can prevent suspension and expulsion.

Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals
Virginia must have a highly skilled workforce that embraces a spirit of life-long learning and continuous quality improvement. To articulate the skills and competencies desired in that workforce, Virginia’s Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals outline standards for competent practice, identifying what early childhood professionals must know, be able to do, and care about to provide quality early care and education.

Need Help Selecting a Curriculum or Professional Development Opportunity?
Two new resource lists are now available to help child care providers select a curriculum and also obtain information on a variety of professional development courses and trainers. The Choosing High-Quality Curriculum list and the Professional Development Resource List for Child Care Providers will be updated annually or as new resources become available, and were developed by the Department of Social Services in cooperation with the University of Virginia's Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning.

Virginia's Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS)
The ELDS are a reference to help caregivers and educators understand what most children are able to know and to do, across different areas of development, by a given age.The document describes development across five overlapping age bands.

The overlap conveys the reality that children develop at different rates. Individual skills will appear, across children, at different times. Those differences are often consistent with “expected” or “typical” development. The ELDS are organized into 5 Areas of Development:

  • Approaches to Play and Learning
  • Social Emotional Learning
  • Communication, Language, and Literacy Development
  • Health and Physical Development
  • Cognitive Development

Learn the Signs. Act Early
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 in 6 children aged 3-17 has a developmental disability, but many of these children are not identified until they are school-aged. Early identification and intervention are crucial to help each child build new skills and reduce the need for costly interventions in the future. The Learn the Signs. Act Early. program provides early childhood educators, clinicians, and families with resources, materials and tools to improve early identification of children with autism and other developmental disabilities.

Family Child Care Tool Kit
This publication is designed to assist family child care providers in providing quality care and education to the children they serve. It contains guides and outlines, sample policies and procedures, forms and checklists, and resources about health and safety and child development.  See the updates made in 2020.

Emergency Preparedness for Child Care Providers
This Sample Child Care Emergency Action Plan can assist providers in their emergency planning for their early childhood program. Additional resources for emergency planning can also be found on the Emergency Preparedness Resources for Child Care Programs, on the Office of Child Care webpage.

Trauma Toolkit
Recent advances in understanding how early childhood experiences shape the way the brain works over a lifetime, reveal how critically important the caregivers’ job of caring for children is. The trauma toolkit is designed to support caregivers on their journey towards trauma sensitivity. The toolkit offers a brief overview by topic, specific tools that can be used with children, and a brief summary on where to find more information.

Professional Associations

Association for Early Learning Leaders
The Association for Early Learning Leader’s goal is to strengthen the knowledge, skills and abilities of early care directors, owners, emerging leaders and other early learning professionals to ensure quality child care programs for young children.

Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children
VAAEYC is an organization that serves, supports, and advocates for all who care for and educate young children. VAAEYC seeks to promote the professional growth of persons working with young children and improve the availability and quality of developmental and educational services and resources for early care providers and early childhood educators.

Virginia Child Care Association
VCCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing support and guidance for Virginia’s private, licensed early childhood education community with up-to-date information and resources to help stay on top of the industry and prepare for future growth and success.

Virginia Partnership for Out-of-School Time
VPOST is a statewide public-private partnership dedicated to developing and expanding academic, social, emotional, and physical supports and services to school-age children and youth across the Commonwealth of Virginia during the out-of-school time hours – before-school, after-school, vacation periods, and summer.

Virginia Alliance of Family Child Care Associations
The Virginia Alliance of Family Child Care Associations promotes professional development for family child care providers through quality child care and early childhood education conferences and training, sharing of educational resources, and collaboration with local associations.

National Association for the Education of Young Children
NAEYC provides research-based ideas to inspire and inform your work with young children.

Virginia Cross Sector Professional Development Leadership Team
VCPD offers a great listing of early childhood professional development web sites that provide a broad array of early childhood professional development resources

Council for Professional Recognition
The Council for Professional Recognition promotes improved performance and recognition of professionals in the early childhood education

PD Essentials
PD Essentials members collaborate through meetings and provide resource information to early childhood professionals through newsletters and their website. They offer a train-the-trainer curriculum that addresses the needs of trainers who have content knowledge but who desire to build their skills in the design and delivery of engaging and effective in person and virtual training.