Measures to Support Early Childhood Health

The bill creates the child care health consultation program (consultation program) in the department of early childhood (department) to expand access to child care health consultants (consultants) and to support whole-child health and well-being in licensed and license-exempt child care and learning settings.

The department shall:

• Contract with an implementation partner (consultant partner) to facilitate the implementation and administration of the consultation program;
• Create a model of child care health consultation (model of care) to provide standards and guidelines to ensure the consultation program is implemented effectively;
• Develop with the consultant partner a statewide professional development plan to support consultants in meeting the expectations outlined in the model of care; and
• Develop a statewide data collection and information system to collect and analyze implementation data and selected consultation program outcomes to identify areas for improvement, promote accountability, and provide insights on how to improve consultation program outcomes to benefit young children and their families.

The department shall submit a report on the consultation program to the joint budget committee by October 1, 2027, and by each October 1 thereafter.

The bill creates the pediatric primary care practice program (primary care program) in the department. The purpose of the primary care program is to provide funding and support to a pediatric primary care medical practice (medical practice) to integrate into the medical practice a professional who specializes in whole-child and whole-family health and well-being.

The department shall contract with an implementation partner (primary care partner) to create and implement the primary care program. The primary care partner shall create and implement a team-based, research-informed pediatric primary care practice evidence-based model (evidence-based model). The evidence-based model must be a comprehensive approach to guide pediatric care medical practices to deliver services to children from birth to 3 years of age and their families.

The primary care partner shall:

• Establish an application and selection process with the department for select medical practices to participate in the primary care program;
• Review applications from medical practices and select applicants to participate in the primary care program;
• Work with selected applicants to complete assessments on the applicants' community health-care systems, health and well-being practices, and related concerns; and
• Train and support the medical practices selected to participate in the primary care program to maintain fidelity to the evidence-based model.

The executive director of the department may adopt rules to carry out the purposes of the consultation program and the primary care program.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)