Reason to Care Daycare

Roselyn Tavares
Reason to Care Daycare
Hayward, CA

Roselyn Tavares, director of A Reason to Care Daycare in Hayward, CA has been a family child care provider for 9 years. Currently, she cares for 4 children full-time, and also offers drop-in services for preschoolers and kindergarteners. While helping her son research for a school project – how to go green at home and in school – Roz found the Eco-Healthy Child Care (EHCC) program. She was thrilled that there was a program endorsing child care providers that take extra steps to provide environmentally healthy care to children.

Like many providers, even before becoming an endorsed EHCC provider, Roz was taking certain precautions to ensure a healthy environment. She only offered non-toxic art supplies, prohibited anyone from smoking in her house, disallowed parents to idle their cars while picking up their child, tested her water for lead contamination, used organic pesticides whenever needed outside and was sure to clean with bio-degradable non-toxic cleaners. All but one room of her house has hard-wood floors. In the room that is carpeted, Roz vacuums and shampoos the room on a regular basis and uses a professional green carpet cleaning company to effectively decrease asthma and allergy triggers. Roz shares that some people think she has gone over the top to provide an environmentally healthy child care facility, but she thinks that it is important to do whatever you can to better the health of the children you care for. She even has a sign that asks people to remove their shoes before entering her house, so that people avoid tracking in dirt that may contain traces of lead and pesticides.

The most important thing that the EHCC checklist taught Roz that it is necessary to check toys for lead, and to avoid plastic toys that are soft and pliable – as they likely contain phthalates which are particularly harmful to children. She is further improving her eco-healthy child care program, by working with the children to create an organic vegetable garden in her back yard. Roz adds, “parents are really happy about their children being in such a healthy environment, especially because they are so young”. Since parents have been so excited about her green practices, she regularly researches eco-healthy practices, and offers parents information so that they can impalement the practices within their own homes.

Roz shares that her biggest challenge “is to keep everybody on track.” In order to do this, she goes the extra mile. For example, to ensure people remove their shoes, she greets them at the door, and reminds them to take off their shoes, or she simply points to her sign. If they don’t want to, she provides flip-flops and paper booties that they can slip on over their shoes! Roz says, “when it comes to taking care of children, you should do whatever you can to keep your program healthy and clean.”