Safety and Health Quality of Child Care Centers in Low-Income Rural Areas

• In Event: Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Inequities, Cradle to Curriculum

Abstract

Quality of safety and health practices were investigated among 173 childcare rooms that serve three- to five-year-old children in high-poverty rural areas using the ECERS-R (Harms et al., 2003). Associations between quality and staff-child ratios and staff training (teacher education, Director education, and Director years of experience) were examined. The majority of rooms had inadequate or below minimal quality ratings for safety and health practices. Director’s years of experience was significantly related to both safety practices and health practices quality with greater years of experience linked with higher quality ratings. Teacher education was associated with the quality of health practices but not safety. Rooms where teacher’s highest level of education was high school had significantly lower quality of health practices.

Authors

• Suzanne Hartman, West Virginia University

• David Luke Loomis, West Virginia University

• Ashlee Cunningham, West Virginia University

• Barbara Warash, West Virginia University

• Reagan Curtis, West Virginia University