Preschool

General Information

Colorado Department of Human Services Early Care and Learning

• Central site for information about licensing, accreditation, regulations, and resources for early education centers in Colorado.
• Child Care Rules, Regulations, and Interpretive Memorandums

National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education

• The National Resource Center is located at the University of Colorado Denver in Denver, Colorado, and is funded Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NRC's primary mission is to promote health and safety in out-of-home child care settings throughout the nation.

Emergency Preparedness

American Academy of Pediatrics

• The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of over 60,000 pediatricians committed to the optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.
• Disaster Preparedness for Child Care Providers
  • Lists resources that will be helpful for early education and child care providers, child care health consultants, pediatricians, and others working to strengthen disaster preparedness in child care programs.
• The Youngest Victims: Disaster Preparedness to Meet Children's Needs 
  • This document is an appendix to the Pediatric Preparedness Resource Kit. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council has identi¿ed a variety of guiding principles or key messages to use to guide decision-making and support the implementation of new public policy, effective community/state planning, and appropriate education and training.

Child Care Aware of America

• Child Care Aware of America works with more than 600 state and local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to ensure that families in every local community have access to quality, affordable child care.
• Disaster Planning and Recovery Basics

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute

• Multihazard Planning for Childcare online course
  • This course covers the steps to help childcare providers prepare for incidents to ensure the safety of the children at their site. Childcare providers must have plans and procedures to keep children safe from everyday hazards and to respond and recover when an emergency happens. The goal of this course is to provide childcare providers, of all sizes and with responsibility for children of all ages, with the knowledge and tools to analyze the hazards and threats at the site, to develop a plan to address these hazards and threats, and to implement processes to update and practice the emergency plan.
• Sample Childcare Emergency Action Plan
• Sample Childcare Emergency Operations Plan

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Child Care

• The Office of Child Care promotes children's learning by improving the quality of early care and education and afterschool programs.
• Child Care Resources for Disasters and Emergencies
• Emergency Preparedness Resources for Child Care Programs
• What States and Territories are Doing: Child Care Resources for Disasters and Emergencies

Safe Facilities

American Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities

• Early Childhood Resources
• Funded by the United States Department of Education. Provides the educational community with a reliable resource when planning facilities projects. ACEF provides information, training, and assistance to public early childhood, K-12, and institutions of higher education on issues related to educational facility planning, design, financing, construction, improvement, operation, and maintenance.

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities

• Early Learning Facilities
• School Playgrounds
• Since 1998, the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities has provided timely, comprehensive information on designing, building, and maintaining safe, healthy, high-performing schools -- from early childhood and K-12 to higher education.
• NCEF is a program of the National Institute of Building Sciences, a non-governmental, non-profit organization authorized by Congress to serve as an authoritative source of innovative solutions for the built environment.

Mental Health and Trauma 

NEW Early Childhood Social-Emotional and Mental Health Navigation Guide for Colorado 

• The goal of the Colorado Early Childhood Social-Emotional and Mental Health Navigation Guide is to support programs, communities and systems as they navigate through the decision making process of identifying practice, policy, and funding strategies that match their capacity, resources, and readiness and meet their local needs and goals. The guide is intended to increase knowledge of and confidence in accessing community mental health resources and information.
• Developed by the JFK Partners at the University of Colorado Denver and the Partnership for Families and Children.
• Flyer with more information 
• Frequently Asked Questions 

National Childhood Traumatic Stress Network

• Early Childhood Trauma

• The mission of the NCTSN is to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families and communities throughout the United States. 

Safe Start Center

• As the National Survey for Children Exposed to Violence has shown, children's exposure to home and community violence is prevalent in the U.S. Exposure to traumatic events is often unexpected and can leave educators with many uncertainties about what to do next. Faced with students struggling to cope and a community struggling to respond, schools need reliable information, practical tools, and pragmatic guidance. Safe Start Center's Toolkit for Schools is a collection of resources for school administrators and teachers to learn more about the prevalence and negative consequences of children's exposure to violence and how they can help.
• Toolkit for Schools
• Tips for Early Childhood Providers

Web Link Disclaimer: The Colorado School Safety Resource Center (CSSRC) provides links from this site to external websites because of their potential interest or usefulness to the safe and positive school environment, an education community or the general public. It attempts to monitor such sites on a regular basis. However, the CSSRC cannot be responsible for the content of any site external to its own. Further, by linking to other sites, the CSSRC is not endorsing any particular product, practice, service, provider or institution, nor does it necessarily endorse views expressed or facts presented on these sites. In addition, neither the CSSRC nor any of its employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information linked to from this site.