Teach

It is important that staff members know the procedures for keeping their environments clean and healthy. The first step is making sure staff members understand their responsibilities. There are many ways to help them understand their responsibilities, but perhaps the most important is to provide training on your program’s requirements for cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting surfaces, toys, and learning materials.

Each new staff member will complete the Virtual Lab School Healthy Environments Course. There are courses specifically for Infant and Toddler, Preschool, and School-Age staff members. There is also a track for family child care providers. All staff members or family child care providers will be presented with activities designed to help them think about the importance of general hygiene practices. Review these activities with each new staff member. Suggested responses are provided for most activities. These can help you monitor the staff member’s understanding of the content. If you think a staff member is struggling with hygiene practices, suggest they review certain content.

It is also important for you to know and communicate key messages to staff members. To provide a safe and healthy environment for children and youth in child development and school-age programs, you must make sure that staff members understand the difference between terms such as cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting. This will help them know when to use products designed for each purpose.

Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting

1. Cleaning: Removes dirt or debris from a surface. For example, you spray a table with a mix of water and detergent to remove food products and debris after a meal.
2. Sanitizing: Reduces germs from a surface. When you sanitize a surface, it meets most health guidelines. Sanitizing usually is not effective unless the surface has been cleaned first. After cleaning the table with detergent and water, you spray an approved mix of water and bleach to sanitize the table and kill germs.
3. Disinfecting: Uses a product that will destroy most germs on the surface. Disinfecting a surface is often necessary when it has made contact with body fluids. Disinfecting usually requires a stronger bleach-water mixture. You should disinfect changing tables, sinks, toilets, and countertops.

You can use the bingo game in the Apply section as a different way to provide booster training to staff members after they have completed their own Virtual Lab School lessons on Healthy Environments.

You should also provide information to staff about when and how often to clean surfaces and materials. A sample schedule is provided in the Apply section. Remember that local policies will also dictate your cleaning schedule, so you may need to make adaptations for your setting.

Model

Although you are not a day-to-day member of the classroom team, you and management staff play an important role in keeping children and youth healthy. For new staff members, it is important that you:

1. Provide any products your program uses to clean, sanitize, or disinfect. You must teach staff members where cleaning supplies are located, how to mix solutions, when to use them, and how to use them. All supplies should be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make sure they are safe.
2. Show staff members how cleaning supplies are stored in your program. For example, cleaning materials should be stored in clearly marked containers. They must be secured and inaccessible to children, including school-age children.
3. Teach staff members how to follow ratios when creating cleaning, sanitizing, or disinfecting solutions. Teach staff when fresh solutions need to be made. Make sure fresh solutions are prepared each day and labeled with the date. Talk with staff about roles and responsibilities in the program: who makes the solution each day?
4. You may also need to provide staff members with calendars and tools to help them keep their environments healthy. For infant and toddler classrooms, it is especially important to provide boxes or bins for “soiled toys.” For all other settings, it may be helpful to provide checklists or calendars. These tools can help staff remember when various surfaces were last cleaned.

Observe

When you spend time in a classroom or program, observe how the staff members maintain the cleanliness of the environment. You can use a variety of tools to help you. Most environmental rating scales include guidelines for health and sanitation practices. You can also use the Healthy Environments Best Practices Checklist in the Apply section of this lesson to help you focus on important health practices in your classrooms and program areas.

The most important thing you can do is observe staff members and talk with them about the health and safety of their environments. It is important for you to know each staff member’s individual strengths and challenges. Remember, you may also need to support consistency across staff members who work in the same classroom across different shifts.

Observing Healthy Environments

In group care settings, like child development programs and school-age programs, it is imperative that staff members take the steps necessary to prevent the spread of disease. This video provides examples of ways you can observe and provide feedback to staff members about cleaning practices that promote health.

Throughout this video, you likely observed some subtle and consistent concerns related to health. Take a few moments to think about what you saw and what you would say and do to support the staff member.

Additional Examples

Now let’s take some time to watch additional examples of ways staff members keep environments clean. These examples come from infant and toddler, preschool, and school-age settings. After you watch the video, read what a coach or trainer might observe, say, and do in each scenario.

Completing this Course

For more information on what to expect in this course and a list of the accompanying Learn, Explore and Apply resources and activities offered throughout the lessons, visit the Training & Curriculum Specialist Healthy Environments Course Guide.

To support the professional development of the direct care staff members or family child care providers you oversee, you can access their corresponding Course Guides:

• Infant & Toddler Healthy Environments Course Guide
• Preschool Healthy Environments Course Guide
• School-Age Healthy Environments Course Guide
• Family Child Care Healthy Environments Course Guide