Child Care Health Consultant Network

Advice & Coaching for Child Care Providers

Child care providers deserve support. We’re here to answer your questions, respond to your needs, and help you make improvements — large and small — to support the health, safety, and well-being of the kids in your care.

Our Child Care Health Consultants offer one-on-one coaching and planning sessions to potentially licensed or currently licensed providers in Kansas — wherever and whenever you need it.

Upcoming Health, Safety, & Wellness Events

Please join the Child Care Health Consultant Network for a monthly Networking and Support meeting (NETS). This is an opportunity for providers to come together and meet fellow providers while gaining valuable resources.
 
No meeting in December. January meeting will be posted soon.
The Child Care Health Consultant Network is offering its first ever all-Spanish Emergency Preparedness trainings. This is a three-part series (12/5, 12/12, 12/19/23) each session is worth 2 KDHE credit hours. For more information, email us or register here.
 
Part 1
Getting Ready for Emergencies and How Health Equity Plays a Role in Emergency Preparedness
Tuesday, December 5th, 2023
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (2 KHDE trainings hours)
Virtual (Zoom)
Registration deadline for this session is 11/30/2023.
 
Part 2
Young & Immobile Children During an Emergency and Child with Special Health Care Needs
Tuesday, December 12th, 2023
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (2 KHDE trainings hours)
Virtual (Zoom)
Registration Deadline for this session is 12/6/2023.
 
Part 3
What to do During an Emergency and Let’s Talk Childhood Trauma
Tuesday, December 19th, 2023
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (2 KHDE trainings hours)
Virtual (Zoom)
Registration deadline for this session is 12/14/2023.
 

Flexible

One-on-One

Customized

The Benefits

You’ve found the business partner you’ve always wanted. Whether you need answers to a few questions, support making small changes, or a plan for a long-term project, your Child Care Health Consultant is here to help.

  • Receive the tools and resources you need to reach your goals.
  • Build confidence in your skills and knowledge.
  • Stay up to date on best practices and the latest research.
  • Learn to customize services for individual children.
  • Improve your relationship with parents and families.
  • Create culturally responsive spaces that welcome diverse children, families, and staff.
  • Find community resources you can turn to for support.
  • Join a community of child care providers with similar experiences and backgrounds.
  • Provide Bi-lingual support.

By stepping up the quality of your child care, more parents will send their kids your way — and recommend your business to their friends and family.

How It Works

We know you’re doing your very best working hard for the kids in your care. But there’s never enough time in the day to finish everything you want to. We can shorten your to-do list — by helping you streamline your routine and work more efficiently.

You can spend as little or as much time as you want working with your consultant, with no minimum timeline requirements. We’ll never force you to meet specific goals or make changes you don’t want to.

When you join the Child Care Health Consultation Network, you can expect to:

  • Brainstorm a list of topics you want to learn more about.
  • Talk about your health, safety, and wellness goals.
  • Set your own focus areas, goals, and timeline.
  • Decide how often you want to meet and how much support you want.
  • Learn about new research and best practices.
  • Participate in group learning opportunities with other providers.

Focus Areas

Your Child Care Health Consultant can advise you on an endless list of topics related to health, safety, and wellness. Here are just a few examples:

Recruitment & Start-up
  • Child care recruitment
  • Licensed child care guidance
  • Grant funding opportunities
  • Preparation for survey inspection
  • Health & safety support
  • Resources
  • Community connections
  • Connections to partner projects
Health, Safety, & Wellness
  • Health, safety & wellness policy development and implementation
  • Illness and infectious diseases
  • Safety and injury prevention
  • Emergency preparedness
  • Health equity
  • Nutrition and physical health
  • Staff health and wellness
  • Children with special health care needs
  • Health education

Your Child Care Health Consultant is here to help all program types. From in-home child care to child care centers large and small! Our Nurse Consultant, Emergency Preparedness Consultant, and Health Equity Consultant are also available to provide additional support.

Learn more about how we can support you with teaching kids about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and promoting a place of belonging for children, families, and staff.

Health, Safety, & Wellness in Child Care

5 Winter Recipe Ideas for Kids

5 Winter Recipe Ideas for Kids

With all the great reasons to incorporate seasonal foods into your program’s menu, it’s easy to see that seasonal recipes are good for your children’s mind and appetite!

Read More »

Why Equity is Key to Quality in Early Childhood Education

Many people, including educators, are becoming more aware of the impact of implicit bias in early childhood. These biases limit children’s opportunities to reach their full potential, and their learning is negatively impacted. Without addressing these biases, high-quality early childhood education isn’t possible.

Read More »

Explore the different perspectives, proposals, and projects of people working toward change in the child care sector. Ideas & Solutions Blog

An Inside Look

Providers at a large child care center and a small group home, both with decades of experience, explain what they gained from the Child Care Health Consultation service.

Resource Center Staff taking call

Frequently Asked Questions

Focused on promoting health, safety, and wellness in child care environments, the Child Care Health Consultant Network is a service offering one-on-one coaching and planning sessions to Kansas providers.

Any potentially licensed or currently licensed child care provider in the state of Kansas can join the network, whatever their experience level. We can offer support to everyone — from providers just launching their careers to professionals who’ve been working in the field for decades.

Nothing. The service is provided at no cost to you.
The Child Care Health Consultation Network is provided by Child Care Aware of Kansas in partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

As much or as little as you want. There are no specific requirements you need to fulfill.
You can request as much or as little support as you want, schedule meetings around your schedule, set your own timeframe for getting things done. Plus, you can drop out at any time — without consequences — if life gets too hectic.

Our highly trained and experienced Child Care Health Consultants have worked in the child care sector for decades, and many have served as providers themselves. They are experts in the latest early care and education research and best practices. Rather than offering rigid recommendations, they help you improve your care in ways that best fit your individual needs, particular strengths, and unique child care environment.

Your Child Care Health Consultant can advise you on effective health, safety, and wellness business practices. By stepping up the quality of your care, more parents will send their kids your way — and recommend your business to their friends and family. Plus, you can market yourself to families as a provider who uses research-based best practices for the safety, health, and well-being of their children.

Yes, a Spanish speaking consultant is available. Materials and resources are also available in Spanish. If another language is needed, we can contact another partner agency for additional services.

Contact us to request an introductory, one-on-one meeting. Click the button below, call 785-823-3343 or email cchc@ks.childcareaware.org

Our Child Care Health Consultants

Support is provided by highly trained and experienced Child Care Health Consultants, many of whom have worked in the child care sector for decades and have served as providers themselves.

Your Child
Care Health
Consultant Is
Here To Be A
Partner, Advisor,
and Coach.

This project is supported by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment with funding from the Kansas Department for Children and Families Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) supplemental funds allocated by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP).

Child Care Aware of Kansas Logo