Training To Ensure Healthy Child Day-Care Programs

Training in child care assumes a number of forms. There is pre-service training (needed before entering the field); orientation training (received when first on the job, highlighting the most essential skills, tasks and knowledge needed to begin the job); and ongoing training (required by regulation or recommended periodically for current staff). Despite the fact that training is known to have a positive effect on the field of early care and education, the current training system is fraught with problems. A 1991 national survey conducted by the Wheelock College Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education found that at least one of three key informants in 59% of states said "training is fragmented, random, scattershot, and not based on the needs of the field."1 The licensing system requires minimal training and experience. For teachers in child-care centers, five states require no training, four states require pre-service training, 29 states require only ongoing training, and 14 states require both pre-service and ongoing training. Few states require more than 10 hours of annual ongoing training for any child-care professionals. For family child-care providers, the numbers are even lower: 24 states require no training and only 12 states require annual ongoing training.1 If first aid and cardiaopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification are required, there is little time for any other training. In addition to limited funds to support training and limited incentives for providers, administrators, on funders to invest in training, other well-known barriers to implementing systematic and coordinated training efforts include the following items: