CCTAN - The Child Care Technical Assistance Network, a service of the Office of Child Care

Child Care Aware created this web-based school-age program checklist to help families select a high quality school-age program. It has questions on topics like health and safety, indoor and outdoor environment, caregiver-child interactions, staff qualifications, and parent partnerships. There is a link to print out the five-page checklist. 

This blog is the second part in a series on prevention and responding to substance use and trauma in Alaska. It describes a collaborative effort and training on trauma-engaged response. It includes a link to Transforming Schools: A Framework for Trauma-Engaged Practice in Alaska that has material relevant for afterschool programs and system planners on relationship building, professional learning, policies, self-care, and responding to historical trauma for indigenous people.

Caring for Our Children is a continually updated set of standards based on the best evidence, expertise, and experiences about quality health and safety practices and policies. This is the fourth edition and it includes a list of changes made since the third edition was published in 2011. It is organized into ten chapters, including topics like staffing; program activities for healthy development; nutrition and food service; facilities; playground and play areas; infectious diseases; special needs; and administration.

This concise, user-friendly tipsheet includes specific ideas for parents around promoting reading and math learning, creating opportunities for learning and staying active, and talking with their child, their child's teacher, and their summertime child care provider to set up for success. Summertime child care providers can share this tipsheet with families to further support summer learning and enrichment experiences for the children they serve.

The National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE) has created a tipsheet, Summer Learning and Learning Enrichment: Tips for School-Age Care Providers, to share ideas with child care providers of things to think about before, during, and at the end of summer.  Specific suggestions involve creating a plan for the summer months, building a relationship with families, engaging children in activities to help prevent the summer slide, and keeping children health

This database provides information on state laws and regulations applicable to camps. It identifies the governing body, provides license information, notes if a license is required for both day and residential camps, states what type of background checks are needed (e.g., criminal record and sex offender records), and describes requirements about minimum wage and overtime pay. The American Camp Association regularly updates the information. 

This series of reports provides a compilation of 41 key indicators for children ages 0-17. The statistics include measures on issues like poverty, homelessness, opioid use, and violence.

This interactive learning series is intended for professionals in Head Start and child care, including school-age programs. There are 8 modules with background information, resources, and scenarios with suggested responses. The modules include an overview of homelessness and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, how to identify and reach out to homeless families, and how to connect with families and community resources. This resource supports resilience.

This resource defines the principles and practices that guide ethical decision-making strategies to ensure safe, nurturing environments and positive relationships in afterschool programs. Ethical responsibilities are organized into four sections: (1) children and youth, (2) families, (3) colleagues, and (4) community and society. It also includes an overview about ethical decision making, definitions, and a bibliography.

This policy statement provides recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for developing and implementing career pathways to support the professional learning, practice, and compensation of early childhood educators and program directors. From the webpage, click on "read the guidance document" to access the policy statement and review state examples about pathways, portable credentials, compensation, and shared terminology.