The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the federal funding source for DHS Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), recently updated their rules and now require new pre-service training for CCAP providers.
To assist child care providers in meeting these requirements, DHS enlisted the Center for Early Learning Professionals for its help. Online training modules that address the required health and safety topics have been developed, and can be found on the center's website under Professional Development: Health and Safety Online Modules (click the link below to view the Center for Early Learning Professionals web page). They are available in both English and Spanish.
All current CCAP providers and their staff must complete the appropriate pre-service Health and Safety training by September 1, 2017. Staff can continue to work unsupervised with children while they complete the training. If staff have already completed the module in 2016, they do not have to repeat the course.
After September 1, 2017, any newly hired staff will have 90 days from their date of hire to complete the pre-service training. At that time, anyone who has not completed their pre-service training requirement will need to be supervised by someone who has completed the training.
Participants will receive a certificate of completion once they complete the training module. DHS will ask programs to confirm completion of the pre-service requirement in September.
If you have any questions about this new requirement for the training modules, please contact the DHS Office of Child Care at 401-462-6877, or email to DHS.ChildCare@dhs.ri.gov.