Childhood Health

Child Care and Development

Most child care in Georgia and nationwide is only of marginal or poor quality. High staff turnover, lack of training and experience, and low pay contribute to low quality care. The College of Family and Consumer Sciences Extension staff organizes and presents local and regional training workshops and conferences for child care professionals; self-study courses for caregivers who cannot attend in-class training sessions; and print information on child development for child care professionals and consumer information to help parents identify quality child care. They also collaborate with employers and community leaders to ensure the availability of consistent, high quality child care as a vital part of the community infrastructure.

Child development education programs reached 10,830 child care providers and provided 26,786 contact hours of education in 2005. Of the child care providers who participated in child care training programs, 99 percent indicated that the programs they completed helped them improve their child care knowledge and skills. County Family and Consumer Sciences agents and state specialists provided high-quality child care training programs at low cost and helped child care providers save money on their training costs. The total value of the cost savings to child care providers in Georgia was $107,144.00 in 2005. (2006)

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