​As a former PA Child Care Licensing Representative with 20+ years of experience, I am very familiar with both child care and school regulations.  Pennsylvania Child Care regulations are primarily concerned with health and safety practices, whereas school regulations are primarily concerned with curriculums.  Opening schools and child cares safely during this unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic, must concern everyone with the best practices for health and safety.  Fortunately, these best practices can be found in a comprehensive resource entitled, Caring For Our Children.
Since 1995, the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NCR) has maintained and continues to develop national health and safety standards for early care and education settings.  While the PA Department of Human Services and the PA Department of Education may do good work in their respective areas of expertise, their oversight and guidance are focused on minimum health and safety compliance.  However, this is a time when everyone must be concerned with the best practices for caring for our children and the time for an action plan is now.
As the executive director of a new 2020 nonprofit, FANS 4 HELP, I can show everyone how to connect with, Caring For Our Children, a collection of national standards that represent the best practices, based on evidence, expertise, and experience, for quality health and safety polices and practices for today’s early care and education settings.
Dennis Smiddle is a former PA Recreation Therapist (15 years), PA Child Care Licensing Representative (20 years), a former Certified Playground Safety Inspector (6 years) and Keystone Stars Playground Safety Trainer (6 years).
Dennis Smiddle
631 Highland Ave.
Canonsburg, PA. 15317
(724) 825-5121
 

​The time to practice Health & Safety is always now and FANS 4 HELP can show everyone how.  With our blog, we will help everyone to get a GRASP on evidenced-based and expert information on Health & Safety Guidelines, Regulations, Accreditation, Standards and Practices (Best). Eventually, we will plan on issuing a FANS 4 HELP seal of approval for recognition of compliance with FANS 4 HELP.  But for now, we will start sharing easy to follow evidenced-based information from experts in the fields of health, environment, learning and play.  
For today, we would like to share some Health & Safety advice for Park and Playground Hygiene.  Due to the present existential treat of the Coronavirus, many parks and playgrounds are being temporarily closed.  These stringent actions are probably the best practices, at this time.  Still, FANS 4 HELP is sharing this well-written article on Playground Hygiene for your information and we still encourage everyone to get as much outdoor activity and play while following all of the Coronavirus updates and best practices for health and safety. 
Full Article on Playground Hygiene -  https://www.aaastateofplay.com/guide-to-playground-hygiene/?fbclid=IwAR0o0DLVFoA_gN6aKmTuR7fAw3rkadl_IU2w5gJoP-9yGUfmyqVa-oE7qK8
Thank you, Dennis Smiddle, -    https://www.expertinstitute.com/expert/playground-safety-expert-witness-e-099110/ 

I, Dennis Smiddle wrote the following letter to the Partnership for a Healthier America on 11-12-2012 and to help advance our shared goals, I founded FANS of Play LLC. on September 7, 2014. This blog, FANS of Play Today, will attempt to provide and share more important H.E.L.P (Health, Environment, Learning and Play) for a healthier America.

War on Childhood Obesity. We as a nation need to declare “War on Childhood Obesity” and most experts agree that the two most effective ways of combating childhood obesity are:
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 (1). Provide more age-appropriate physical fitness opportunities or exercise and,
 (2). Provide healthier diets.

Winning this “War on Childhood Obesity” can be accomplished for all of our nation’s children and the battlefields for this “War” should be on the playgrounds of America. We can fight this epidemic on Early Learning Facility Playgrounds, School Playgrounds, Park Playgrounds and other Community Playgrounds.  In this way, we can reach all of our children and provide opportunities to teach and build healthy habits and healthier lifestyles.

To most effectively win this “War” and have lasting positive life-style changes, we need to redesign or supplement our existing playgrounds with more beneficial opportunities such as, nature/fitness trails, gardens and outdoor classroom areas.  These are easy renovations and everyone can be involved in the building, including the children.

 Outdoor learning areas and gardens can be used to teach about the environment and provide hands-on experiences to connect children with nature.  Planting a garden helps children learn about the growth process, the environment, eating healthier, and appreciating a variety of healthy foods.  These early lessons can lead to life-long healthier lifestyles.   

Fitness trails can provide healthy exercise opportunities with age-appropriate fitness stations and with an accessible trail for walking, skipping, hopping, running or other physical activities.

These areas and play opportunities are considered “suggestive play” and they provide more physical, social, emotional, and cognitive health benefits than the traditional equipment-based or “prescriptive” playgrounds since the children are free to use their imaginations and creativity.

Positive results are expected since the playgrounds will be better designed to focus on the two most effective ways of combating obesity : (1) physical exercise and (2) healthier diets.  Playgrounds are accessible to most all children and families in schools, early learning facilities and parks. Schools will be encouraged to get children outdoors more since research indicates that physical activity improves classroom performance and more emphasis is being placed on environmental learning.

To promote these programs and ensure their success, information can be sent to schools and communities regarding the benefits which include physical, social, emotional, and cognitive benefits for children, along with cost-saving benefits in terms of health and safety, and the easy Do-it-Yourself plans or resources for creating these cost effective environments.

Contacting the Departments of Education, the Departments of Health, the National Recreation and Parks Association, NAEYC, and other child health and education advocates would help further this initiative.  Then of course, The Partnership for a Healthier America Challenge is a means to the End Childhood Obesity.