Department of Early Learning

<date>

1110 Jefferson Street SE

Olympia, WA

98501

Dear <name>,

I am a nurse and child care health consultant in Washington State who has worked with over X> early education centers over the past X years. I consider myself to be a partner of the Department of Early Learning in a common goal of promoting the safest, healthiest environments possible so that young children can focus on learning and growing. It has come to my attention that during the negotiated rule making process, the requirement for contracting with a nurse consultant has been eliminated (WAC 170-300-0275). I am writing to request that you reexamine this rule change.

The purpose of the WAC is to set basic health and safety standards for licensed programs. By eliminating the requirement for a monthly health consultation, the new licensing rules would be weakening safety standards. There is a body of evidence, from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other research organizations, showing that child care health consultation works to improve health and safety for both children and staff.[1] The experience of a few people involved in the negotiated rule making process should not override this evidence.

I acknowledge that there are inconsistencies and gaps in knowledge and resources for child care health consultants across the state. However, instead of removing child care health consultants from centers, there should be an attempt to improve the role of health consultants. I would welcome training requirements and DEL support for my work with early education programs.

Some of the many issues I address in my work include: medication storage and administration; safe and nutritious food, infant safe sleep practice; sanitizer/disinfectant preparation, storage, and use; safe enrichment toys; and communicable disease education. Although I visit my centers monthly, I am always on-call for my centers and provide caregivers and directors confidential unbiased health advice.provide a personal example of what you do as a nurse consultant>.

Please contact me if you have questions about my experiences as a nurse consultant.

Thank you for reading this letter and for all your work promoting children’s early learning experiences.

Sincerely,

<name>

[1] According to AAP guidelines, “Child Care Health Consultants provide consultation, training, information and referral, and technical assistance to caregivers/ teachers. Growing evidence suggests that child care health consultants support healthy and safe early care and education settings and protect and promote the healthy growth and development of children and their families”.