Managing Infectious Diseases in Early Care and Education Settings

Description

This course will explore the best possible way for Early Care and Education (ECE) Providers to keep young children and staff who care for them safe and healthy. It will offer examples and case scenarios for center-based and home-based care.

This course is designed for early care and education providers and staff. Early care and education providers play a major role in protecting children from injuries and diseases.

Early care and education providers can help recognize and mitigate infectious diseases by teaching foundational skills about staying healthy and keeping safe from germs. Many parents get great support from early care and education providers around teaching children toileting, hand hygiene, and respiratory etiquette skills.

Unit 1: Introduction to Managing Infectious Diseases in Early Care and Education Settings

By the end of Unit 1, you will be able to:

• Recognize the biological and social factors that explain why children get sick more often than adults.
• Describe how infectious diseases are spread.
• Examine how illnesses affect, children, caregivers, and employers. 

Unit 2: Practice Prevention

By the end of Unit 2, you will be able to:

• Evaluate policies, procedures, and CFOC recommendations.
• Recognize the important role of early learning professionals in preventing the spread of infectious diseases.
• Recognize the importance of immunization in the prevention and spread of disease.
• Determine proper care and hygiene practices related to oral health, hand hygiene, diapering, and toileting.
• Minimize the spread of infectious disease through proper handling of blood and body fluids.
• Employ safe and effective cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting practices.
• Engage in safe food preparation and handling.

Unit 3: Common Infectious Diseases

By the end of Unit 3, you will be able to:

• Evaluate the symptoms of common rashes and determine if exclusion is necessary.
• Evaluate childhood illnesses that cause fever and sore throat.
• Identify the common illnesses that cause intestinal issues and determine the appropriate response.
• Evaluate issues of the neck and eye, determine their cause, and the level of severity and response needed.

Unit 4: Recognizing the Ill Child: Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

By the end of Unit 4, you will be able to:

• Conduct a daily health check.
• Recognize the signs of illness in a child.
• Determine the proper facility setup, staffing, and medication administration to manage illness.
• Recognize situations that require emergency action or medical attention.
• Create exclusion policies and recognize when exclusions are necessary.

Unit 5: Staff Wellness and Involvement in Policies and Procedures

By the end of Unit 5, you will be able to:

• Develop policies and professional development practices to promote health and wellness among staff members.
• Develop and post policies, and train staff on health, safety, wellness, and exclusion policies and procedures.
• Track immunization data. 

Course Details

• Start Date: June 30, 2025
• Online Access Expires: June 29, 2028
• Credit Expires: June 29, 2028
• Course ID: 61860

Acknowledgements

​​​This course was supported in part through a grant provided by the Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood.

Faculty

Authors

• Felice Adler-Shohet, MD, FAAP
• Michele Cheung, MD, MPH, FAAP

Reviewer

• Andrew Hashikawa, MD, MS, FAAP