Training and Support

Health and Safety resources are at the core of providing a safe and healthy environment for children. The resources in this section support providers in proactively preventing injury and illness.

• Animals and Children: Friends or Foes? - BCAL PUB-685 - is a technical assistance and consultation guide for child care providers on how to keep both kids and pets safe while in your care.
• Appropriate Supervision - provides information on what is and is not acceptable when supervising children in your care.
• Keeping Track At All Times: Preventing Lost Children BCAL-687 - provides information on how to keep track of children in your care at all times to prevent children from getting lost.
• Infant Safe Sleep Child Care Rules - BCAL PUB-780 - gives required information on best practices for infant sleeping while in your care.
• Never Shake a Baby (CTF-PUB-213) - explains how to calm a crying baby in order to prevent serious injury.
• Safe Sleep Tip Card - goes over the do's and don'ts for baby sleep spaces.
• Let's Keep It Healthy - Policies and Procedures for a Safe and Healthy Environment - BCAL PUB-781 - provides guidance on sanitary practices to keep the children in your care healthy and the space they are in clean.
• Snacks That Count - BCAL-242 - is a guide for providing healthy snacks for children in between meals and encouraging good food habits.
• Managing Communicable Diseases in Child Care Settings - BCAL PUB-111 - contains information on various infectious diseases and how to prevent their spread.
• Nursery Products Annual Report - is a report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that provides statistics on nursery products that caused injury and death with children younger than 5 years of age.
• RADON testing - provides information on what Radon is and why it is important to test for it as well as approved testing devices.
• Transportation Requirements for Child Care Homes at a Glance - BCAL PUB-788 - gives transportation requirements for Child Care Homes.
• Transportation Requirements for Child Care Centers at a Glance - BCAL PUB-789 - gives transportation requirements for Child Care Centers.
• Integrated Pest Management - aims to protect the health and safety of students and children by minimizing the potential for their exposure to pesticides. In Michigan, schools and day cares need to follow legal requirements related to IPM and ensure pesticides are used safely and in accordance with the label.

Social-emotional resources support providers through tough situations by providing tools to both staff and children in care to navigate scenarios that may arise in a child care setting.

• Biting: What Can I Do To Stop It? BCAL-688 - offers guidance on how to take a calm and patient approach when caring for a child that is biting others.
• Fussy Baby BCAL-689 - provides guidance on what may be causing fussiness and how to identify their individualized need during periods of fussiness.
• Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation - a Prevention-based Intervention teaming mental health professionals with early care and education providers, home visitors, and families to improve adults’ ability to positively develop children’s social, emotional, and behavioral health from birth through age five.
• Infant Mental Health - gives information on how to support a healthy, happy relationship with the children in your care.
• Positive Discipline-Including the Proper Use of Time Out-BCAL PUB-787 - is a guide for caregivers on how to work with children that are acting out by encouraging rule folowing, nurturing constructive interactions, and positive discipline reinforcement.
• Positive Methods of Discipline Video - a video that reflects how negative discipline can impace children and how to start practicing positive reinforcement.
• Toilet Learning And The Toddler BCAL-686 - provides a practical approach to toilet learning to ensure success.
• Working With Children Who Have Special Needs BCAL-4594 - is a guideline for the best ways to work with children that have special needs that help them learn and grow.

Child Care Licensing provides a variety of resources from our partner organizations to ensure the highest standards of information are available to those who do or who would like to provide care for children.

• Afterschool Training Toolkit provides researched-based practices, sample lessons, video examples, and resources to support academic enrichment during afterschool hours.
• Michigan Afterschool Partnership (MASP) targets network engagement, quality and capacity building, advocacy, and other resources that support the Out-of-School-Time (OST) sector and help young people thrive.
• Baby & Kid Product Recalls - Consumer Product Safety Commission protects the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products, such as toys, cribs, power tools, and household chemicals.
• Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation promotes social and emotional development in children (birth to age 5) by providing evidence-based resources to Head Start staff, families, and early childhood professionals.
• Trauma Smart Resources is an early education partnership that helps schools and organizations support children affected by trauma.
• Zero to Three - Early Childhood Mental Health is dedicated to ensuring all babies and toddlers (birth to age three) have a strong start in life by providing resources for parents, training for professionals, and advocating for policies regarding child care, mental health, and development.
• Child and Adult Care Food Program helps to improve nutrition, reduce hunger for over 3 million children, and enhance food quality in child care centers, family day homes, and adult day care centers by providing reimbursement to care providers for serving nutritious meals and snacks to children and eligible adults in daycare settings.
• Healthy Children - American Academy of Pediatrics Website provides trusted health information for parents and caregivers and offers over 5,000 articles on child health, safety, and development from birth through young adulthood in English and Spanish.
• Disaster Preparedness to Meet Children's Needs ensures that emergency plans specifically address children's unique physiological, psychological, and developmental vulnerabilities by  training responders, securing pediatric-specific medical supplies, planning for family reunification, and addressing the needs of children with disabilities in shelters and evacuations.
• Early On provides free, early intervention services for children from birth to age 3 who have, or are at risk for, developmental delays or disabilities.
• Michigan Head Start Association Inc. provides leadership, training, and advocacy for children and families served by Head Start and Early Head Start agencies across Michigan.
• Preparing for the Flu: A Communication Toolkit for Child Care and Early Childhood Programs offers CDC-based resources to help providers prevent, manage, and communicate about influenza in early childhood settings by providing templates, fact sheets, and action steps for staff and parents regarding hygiene, vaccination, and illness management.
• Program Administrators - NAEYC Accreditation leads early childhood centers through a rigorous, voluntary 4-step accreditation process to meet high-quality standards in teaching, curriculum, health, and leadership.
• United Way mobilizes communities to improve lives by focusing on education, financial stability, and health and acts as a community change agent by partnering with local nonprofits, businesses, and government to fund programs, address gaps in services, and support families.