State child care licensing regulations, which specify the standards for practice to which child care providers must adhere to be licensed, can be a policy tool for ensuring that child care providers use healthy nutrition, physical activity, and screen time practices. However, what state agencies do to support child care providers in actually implementing these practices, and how equitably this is done, is unknown. It is crucial to understand how best to actually translate state child care obesity prevention policies so that they ultimately improve child health; otherwise, efforts to improve the policies themselves may ultimately be futile. The aims are to 1) Identify specific strategies used by state child care licensing and public health agencies to implement nutrition, physical activity, and screen time policies specified in licensing regulations; 2) Explore state child care licensing administrators’ perceptions of barriers and supports to successful implementation of healthy eating, physical activity, and screen time policies and their perceptions of implementation in under-resourced communities, using qualitative interviews; and 3) Assess whether each state’s regulatory context and state demographics predict the total number of the state’s implementation efforts.
Start Date: February 2019
ID #: 76298
Principal Investigator: Erica Kenney, ScD, MPH
Organization: Harvard College
Funding Round: Round 11
Race/Ethnicity: African American or Black, American Indian, Asian, Latino(a) or Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, White
Keywords: Child Care/Preschool, Nutrition standards, Physical activity
Focus Area: Early Childhood
Resource Type: Grant Summary
State: National
Age Groups: Pregnant women, infants and toddlers (ages 0 to 2), Preschool-age children (ages 3 to 5)
Related Research
October 2026
Cross-Sectional Evaluation of WIC Participation Status and Massachusetts Children’s Nutrition after the Cash-Value Benefit Increase
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increased the Cash-Value Benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables in 2021. Although WIC participants reported increased purchasing, consumption, and variety of fruits and vegetables after the CVB increase, it is unknown whether this resulted in higher fruit and vegetable intake relative to nonparticipants. The MoreOctober 2026
An Electronic Health Record-Based Intervention to Facilitate Primary Care Referrals to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children: Retrospective Cohort Study
This study evaluated responses to an electronic health record (EHR)-embedded federal nutrition program (FNP) participation screening and WIC referral tool implemented within 8 clinics during well-child visits for children younger than 5 years of age. Structured EHR data from July 2020 to October 2023 were extracted to summarize screening, referral acceptance, WIC enrollment outcomes, and MoreSeptember 2026