Good morning. My name is Alex Guzmán, and I am the Public Policy Officer at ChildSavers, 100-year-old nonprofit providing trauma-informed youth mental health and child development services throughout the Commonwealth.
I am here this morning to speak in support of HB 358, Delegate Simond’s safe sleep bill.
Our Child Development Services staff at ChildSavers work directly with child care programs – child care centers and home-based programs. Staff provide technical assistance to support licensing requirements, to help providers become licensed or voluntarily registered, and to help strengthen the quality of programs. In FY23, we served 546 providers across Virginia.
Safe sleep practices are something you would think that everyone knows. But, what we see is that many people are not familiar with the safe sleep guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics. For people working in licensed child care programs, compliance with the safe sleep guidelines is required. The safe sleep guidance also applies to license exempt care and to religious exempt care.
The only category of regulated care that is not required to follow any safe sleep practices is Voluntarily Registered care. It’s a loophole. And, one that can have deadly consequences. The most frequent cause of deaths in babies is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS. Many SIDS cases turn out to be an unsafe sleep arrangement.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has reviewed infant deaths over the years. To reduce the likelihood of SIDS, they have recommended guidelines for safe sleep.
It’s time to make sure that all regulated child care programs in Virginia are required to utilize safe sleep practices. These guidelines can help save lives.
Please support HB 358 and pass the legislation today.
Good morning. My name is Alex Guzmán, and I am the Public Policy Officer at ChildSavers, 100-year-old nonprofit providing trauma-informed youth mental health and child development services throughout the Commonwealth. I am here this morning to speak in support of HB 358, Delegate Simond’s safe sleep bill. Our Child Development Services staff at ChildSavers work directly with child care programs – child care centers and home-based programs. Staff provide technical assistance to support licensing requirements, to help providers become licensed or voluntarily registered, and to help strengthen the quality of programs. In FY23, we served 546 providers across Virginia. Safe sleep practices are something you would think that everyone knows. But, what we see is that many people are not familiar with the safe sleep guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics. For people working in licensed child care programs, compliance with the safe sleep guidelines is required. The safe sleep guidance also applies to license exempt care and to religious exempt care. The only category of regulated care that is not required to follow any safe sleep practices is Voluntarily Registered care. It’s a loophole. And, one that can have deadly consequences. The most frequent cause of deaths in babies is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS. Many SIDS cases turn out to be an unsafe sleep arrangement. The American Academy of Pediatrics has reviewed infant deaths over the years. To reduce the likelihood of SIDS, they have recommended guidelines for safe sleep. It’s time to make sure that all regulated child care programs in Virginia are required to utilize safe sleep practices. These guidelines can help save lives. Please support HB 358 and pass the legislation today.