By Greg Halbleib
BLOOMINGTON – The McLean County Health Department is scrambling to help child care workers develop resources which are going away with the end of a state program this week.
Health Department director Walt Howe says he learned only about 10 days ago that the state was discontinuing the Healthy Child Care Illinois program, which supports a child care nurse consultant at the department who answers questions and provides resources for child care workers. Howe tells WJBC’s Terry James local child care workers need resources for health-related questions.
“We want to make sure we work closely with these child care providers,” Howe told WJBC’s Terry James, “and say do you have a good operations manual, do you have a place you can go, do you have alternatives? We need to make sure those are in place because the ramifications could be disastrous.”
Howe says he plans to discuss a temporary transition program during next month’s McLean County Board of Health meeting. The transition period would help local child care providers develop resources to use for health-related matters that have previously been answered through the state program.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at greg@wjbc.com.
