The Stanislaus County Health Services Agency (SCHSA) announced this past week that the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has provided grant funding to the Keep Baby Safe (KBS) Car Seat Safety Program. This is the third consecutive year the KBS program has received these funds and the grant period is from Oct. 1, 2017 through Sept. 30, 2018.

The Keep Baby Safe program educates parents, caregivers, and childcare providers/professionals on the importance of child passenger safety in the car including the correct use of car seats, booster seats, and seat belts. The program offers monthly classes in Spanish and English at the main SCHSA campus in Modesto and funding has also helped expand KBS to the county’s 10 local Family Resource Centers (FRC) including: North Modesto/Salida FRC, The Bridge FRC, Oakdale FRC, Sierra Vista Drop-In Center, Parent Resource Center (Modesto and Airport), Patterson FRC, Newman FRC, Ceres Partnership, Hughson FRC and Turlock FRC.

Since Oct.1, 2015, a total of 95 bilingual KBS classes have been held in the county, providing 673 individuals with car seat safety education. During the same time period, eight car seat inspection events have been held providing trained technicians to educate parents and childcare providers on properly fitting and installing car seats. Overall, these events have provided for the inspection of 224 car seats and have led to the replacement of 127 car seats due to being involved in a crash, expiration, missing a label, and/or incorrectly fitting the child.

Because buckling up is the simplest way to save lives and reduce injuries, the KBS program will continue to educate parents and childcare providers about proper use of child safety seats.

For more information about the KBS program or class schedule, please contact SCHSA KBS program at (209) 558-7400.