Alignment Between CCDF Plan and Go NAPSACC
Go NAPSACC is an evidence-based program that is a foundational component of a comprehensive statewide obesity prevention program ensuring the integration of early care and education (ECE). Across the United States, ECE centers serve nearly one-third of children under the age of six.Hence, ECE is an important setting through which to direct public health initiatives to build healthy eating and physical activity habits in young children.Developed over fifteen years ago, NAPSACC has been shown by multiple rigorous evaluations to have a positive impact on ECE policies, practices, and environment with an ultimate impact on child weight.
- Go NAPSACC offers an evidence-based online toolkit that can help states improve the physical activity and nutrition practices of their ECE programs. The online toolkit offers tools for ECE providers as well as technical assistance (TA) consultants and state administrators. Together these tools facilitate efficient delivery of Go NAPSACC.
- Provider tools offer seven modules, including: Breastfeeding & Infant Feeding, Child Nutrition, Farm-to-ECE, Oral Health, Infant & Child Physical Activity, Outdoor Play & Learning, and Screen Time. States can encourage ECE providers to focus on select modules or use all seven as part of their efforts to improve implementation of nutrition and physical activity standards.
- TA consultant and state administrator tools provide robust reporting capabilities that allow states to easily monitor implementation and measure change.
Healthy Eating Research has labeled NAPSACC as showing the best evidence for reducing childhood obesity risk in children under age 5.9A recent CHOICES (Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Study) analysis found the integration of NAP SACC into Arkansas Better Beginnings Quality Rating Improvement System to be an investment in child health, that could result in the training of over 1,300 child care directors and staff and lead to healthier ECE environments for 116,000 children over the next decade.
The CCDF Plan allows states and territories to describe their implementation of the CCDF program across eight organizational categories. Go NAPSACC can help states with Section 6, Recruit and Retain a Qualified and Effective Child Care Workforce and Section 7, Support Continuous Quality Improvement.
Click here for specific subsections, and how Go NAPSACC can be incorporated.