Health and Safety Resources for Child Care Workers.

Organized into three sections, these resource materials provide basic information for child caregivers about occupational hazards associated with child care work; personnel policies, staff burnout and environmental stressors; and employee rights. Contents of the first section include a general discussion of health and safety hazards in child care environments; a health and safety checklist; a fact sheet for women who clean child care centers; a discussion about art materials that should be avoided and alternatives to hazardous cleaning materials; guidelines for avoiding back injuries and preventing infectious diseases in child care centers; and discussions focusing on the eradication of infestations of head lice in children, control of cockroaches without the use of pesticides, asbestos in schools, and free and low cost health and safety resources. The second section provides discussions of staff burnout in child care settings, improvement of substitute policies, staff break time policy, health coverage, and personal safety for child care staff. Also provided is a discussion of possible environmental causes of stress on child caregivers. Materials in the third section deal with workers' compensation benefits, employment rights and wage and hour laws in California, and employment rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act. (RH)