LAUSR

BACKGROUND High rates of infant death associated with sleeping practices continue to persist in the United States. Infants spend a large portion of their day with child care and family child care learning home providers. Safe sleeping practices continue to be an area of need for care providers of young children. METHOD The current study examines data drawn from a publicly-available database of child care licensing reports in Georgia (n = 3,501) which contained data on child care centers and family child care learning homes. Information in the database included characteristics of the centers, year of data collection, and the specific violations by child care provider type. RESULTS Results indicated clear differences in the prevalence of violations between child care centers and family child care learning homes. Within the overall sample, 13.3% of centers and family child care learning homes were cited for safe sleeping practice violations with higher prevalence in licensed child care centers and unaccredited centers. Violations were consistent with those commonly found in child care environments and inconsistent with American Academy of Pediatricssafe sleep recommendations. CONCLUSIONS Data from the current study suggest a continued need for professional learning on safe sleep practices.