Weighing In on What Is Happening With the Obesity Prevention in Child Care Partnership

Because a significant proportion of young children become overweight or obese well before school entry, increased attention is being focused on opportunities for prevention in early care and education settings.   

Why is this important?    

The environmental conditions and behaviors contributing to early childhood obesity also compromise development and learning: unhealthy food and beverage choices, insufficient structured and unstructured physical activity, too much TV/screen time, and early cessation of breastfeeding.  

What is being done to promote healthy changes in early care and education settings in New York State?  

In 2010, a group of early childhood organizations and agencies met to consider the problem of infant and early childhood obesity and to explore opportunities for obesity prevention in the early care and education system.

As a result of this meeting, the Obesity Prevention in Child Care Partnership was formed and affiliated with the ECAC's Promoting Healthy Development workgroup. The Partnership's goal is to improve child health and reduce obesity risk by increasing the number of early care and education settings that implement recognized best practices for nutrition, physical activity, screen time and breastfeeding.    

• During the coming year, the Partnership will focus on strategies to reduce screen time, eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages and increase breastfeeding support.  The Partnership's goal and planned activities support the Healthy Children component of the ECAC's Strategic Plan, specifically:
• Provide children with safe and healthy environments in which to grow and develop.
•  Increase protection, promotion and support for breastfeeding when mothers return to the workforce.
• Strengthen and expand current efforts to promote health and safety in early care and education settings through the development of standards, training and consultation.
• Identify opportunities to collaborate with existing public health programs and initiatives to achieve key outcomes for children, including healthy weight and nutrition.
• Increase the percentage of children who have optimal physical, emotional and cognitive development.
• Decrease the percentage of children who are overweight or obese.

For more information on best practices and obesity prevention in early care and education see:

Preventing Childhood Obesity in Early Care and Education Programs

http://nrckids.org/CFOC3/PREVENTING_OBESITY/index.htm

Why Focus on Food and Physical Activity Environments?

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/problem.html 

Target Audience     

Licensors, Registrars, Pre-K Administrators, Resource and Referral agency staff, CSEA field representatives, Policy makers, Stakeholders and others interested in young children. 

Please join us for a statewide videoconference about QUALITYstarsNY.  The purpose of this event is to communicate with interested colleagues about New York's quality rating and improvement system. Hear first-hand from leaders in the field of early care and education in New York State about the importance of QUALITYstarsNY and the opportunities it offers.  Results from the recent Field Test are in!

• What did we learn?
• What happens now?
• How can we get ready for statewide implementation?

Special Guests Include

• Janice Molnar, Deputy Commissioner, OCFS, Co-Chair ECAC Quality Improvement Work Group 
• Anne Mitchell,  Early Childhood Policy Research, Co-Chair ECAC Quality Improvement Work Group 
• Sherry Cleary, Executive Director, NYC Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, Co-Chair Early Childhood Advisory Council  
• Bob Frawley, Deputy Director, Council on Children and Families, Co-Chair Early Childhood Advisory Council 
• Ola Friday, Project Coordinator, NYC Early Childhood Professional Development Institute
• Meg McNiff,  Director of the Office of Early Learning, NYS Education Department 

 If you have questions or need more information, check out www.QUALITYstarsNY.org 

or contact:

Ola.Friday@mail.cuny.edu
or
Barbara.Hogan@ccf.state.ny.us 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

QUALITYstarsNY Field Test Evaluation Report

The ECAC is pleased to announce the release of the QUALITYstarsNY Field Test Evaluation Report by the Center for Assessment and Policy Development, the National Center for Children and Poverty and Lisa A. McCabe.  We would like to extend our thanks to the dedicated programs and providers that made the field test a reality.  The executive summary and full report are available here: 

http://www.qualitystarsny.org/index.php?pg=fieldTest.  

Now Open for Comments:  CCDF Proposed Plan