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About Us
County Impact Statements - Phillips County
Extension Service Offers Training For Child Care Providers
Children are our greatest treasure. In Arkansas, 69% of children under the
age of 6 live with working parents. Many of these children will need quality
child care in order to reach their physical, social, emotional and intellectual
potential.
Helping to make quality child care available to Phillips County families is a
current goal of the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas.
Quality child care gives single parents a chance to find and keep a job, allows
both mothers and fathers to contribute to the family income and prepares
children for school. Simply put, quality child care is a critical resource that
we must work together to provide for the children and communities who depend on
us.
In response to this growing need, Extension developed and delivers "The Best
Care". The Best Care is a training program for child care providers in Phillips
County. There are 33 day care centers in Phillips County. The Best Care classes
fulfill the state requirement that licensed child care providers must receive
ten hours of instruction each year. The Best Care classes provide formal
training on topics such as: child safety, nutrition, infant and toddler
development, brain development, age-appropriate teaching strategies, child abuse
and neglect, effective discipline, working with parents, and record keeping and
business management.
Quality child care is a critical resource for the county’s children, their
parents and our economy. Extension’s Best Care program provides one of the
necessary building blocks for our children’s future. In 2000, a total of 57
individual child care providers received training from the Extension Best Care
training program.
Beverly Henderson teaching nutrition to child care providers.
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Impacts
- 57 Phillips County child care workers received Best Care training in FY
2000.
- 26 providers completed the 10 hours program.
- 100% of trainees surveyed reported that they can now identify new
strategies for helping young children learn.
- 100% of trainees surveyed reported that after attending Best Care
classes, they now conduct regular safety checks at their child care
facilities and take corrective actions when necessary.
- 100% of trainees surveyed reported that they now know how to report
suspected child abuse or maltreatment.
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