Child Care and Special Needs Children: Challenges for Low-income Families
A study of child care for children with special needs that also examines related issues of welfare reform and coordination with early intervention services at the community level. The research is based on focus groups and in-depth interviews with low income parents of children with special needs in six communities in Maine and Connecticut, as well as interviews with welfare caseworkers, early intervention case managers, child care providers, and low-wage employees, to provide a context for parents' perspectives. Surveys of 189 child care providers and 441 parents of children with special needs in Maine was conducted as well as a secondary analysis of data from a sample of families with children with special needs drawn from the National Survey of America's Families.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Comparing Web-Based to In-Person Training to Deliver a Nutrition and Physical Activity Intervention in Child Care
A comparative study of different types of training components of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care project (NAP SACC) in terms of their overall effectiveness at preparing Child Health Care Consultants (CCHCs) to deliver the NAP SACC intervention. NAP SACC is an intervention for child care centers and family child care homes aimed at improving nutrition and physical activity policies and practices, including the nutritional quality of food served, the amount and quality of physical activity, staff-child interactions, and center nutrition and physical activity policy, through self-assessment and targeted technical assistance. With the help of a trained CCHC, centers complete a self-assessment instrument at pre and post-intervention to evaluate center nutrition and physical activity policies and practices in fifteen areas. This study gathers a sample of twenty CCHCs who volunteer to bring NAP SACC to their counties, randomly assigns them to one of two training methods--web-based and in-person group, and evaluates them on their overall nutrition and physical activity knowledge and their ability to provide technical assistance to centers.
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
