As part of the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014, states must require health and safety pre-service or orientation training for child care providers. The intent of the training is to support basic health and safety standards designed to prevent harm to children. Documentation of health and safety orientation training is required for current providers and their staff by September 30, 2016.
The new law requires this training for all providers eligible to receive Child Care Development Fund vouchers. This includes:
- All licensed centers
- All licensed homes
- All unlicensed registered ministries certified for CCDF
- All legally licensed exempt providers
The documentation of Health and Safety Modules 1-4 orientation training is required for all caregivers including teachers, directors in child care centers, child care homes licensees, volunteer caregivers and anyone else included in the child-staff ratio through the I-Lead provider portal in Indiana Learning Paths.
Your Paths to QUALITY™ coach or OECOSL Child Care Supports can help you to understand and meet the training requirements, contact information may be found here.
Required health and safety training topic areas
There are 10 required training topic areas in addition to highly recommended child development training. Documentation of training in each applicable topic area, appropriate to the provider setting and age of children served, is needed to complete the requirement for health and safety orientation training.
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Prevention and control of infectious disease (including immunizations)
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Administration of medication consistent with standards for parental consent
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Prevention and response to emergencies due to food and allergic reactions
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Building and physical premises safety including identification of and protection from hazards, bodies of water and vehicular traffic
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Emergency preparedness and response planning for emergencies resulting from a natural disaster, or a man-caused event (such as violence at a child care facility) within the meaning of those terms under section 602(a)(1) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act
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Handling and storage of hazardous materials and appropriate disposal of bio-contaminants
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Appropriate precautions in transporting children (if applicable)
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Prevention of sudden infant death syndrome and use of safe sleeping practices (if applicable)
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Recognition and reporting of child abuse and neglect; prevention of shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma
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First aid and CPR overview
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Major domains of child development
Meeting the requirements
The documentation of Health and Safety Modules 1–4 orientation training is required for all caregivers, including teachers, directors of child care centers, child care home licensees, volunteer caregivers, and anyone counted in the child‑staff ratio. This documentation must be completed and recorded through the I‑LEAD provider portal in Indiana Learning Paths.
Monitoring compliance
Documentation of health and safety orientation training must be in the form of training certificate(s). Training certificates must include, at a minimum, the following information:
- Date of training
- Name and credentials of the trainer/or the training organization
- Content/subject of the training
- Type of training (face-to-face, webinar, etc.)
- Number of clock hours of training in topic/content area
The documentation should be placed in the individual's professional development file and be available for review.
Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning staff will check for staff compliance with the Health and Safety training requirements during renewal inspection in conjunction with the program’s licensure, registration or certification period. If a non-compliance is cited, the provider will need to submit a written plan to their OECOSL consultant on how the provider will correct the non-compliance and come into compliance with the training requirement. If a provider is not in compliance, it may affect the status of their license, registration or CCDF eligibility