Professional Development for Early Childhood Staff
Project Director:
Funded by:
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, U.S. Department of Education, Rhode Island Department of Human Services, Rhode Island Department of Education, and Fee-For-Service
Services:
Design & DevelopmentImplementation
Region:
United States
Duration:
2009-Present
Challenge
Early childhood staff play a vital role in communities. Every day, they nurture children’s healthy development, love of learning, and lifelong success. Their work is crucial to families, always complex, and extremely challenging. Yet despite their important work, far too few early childhood staff receive the training and support they need to advance in their professions.
For over 45 years, EDC has provided high-quality courses and coaching for health and education staff in Head Start programs, family child-care homes, child-care centers, prekindergarten programs, and home visiting programs nationwide. Our professional learning programs support staff in using evidence-based approaches that improve child and family outcomes. As an International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) accredited provider, we offer continuing education units for our courses that qualify under the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/IACET guidelines.
Key Activities
Currently, EDC offers the following learning opportunities for early childhood staff:
- Deliver a variety of national webinars through the National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety (NCHBHS), which we lead for the Office of Head Start
- Provide IACET-accredited courses that are in compliance with EDC’s Non-Discrimination Policy (contact IACET@edc.org for policy). Current courses delivered through EDC’s National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety (NCHBHS) include:
- Moving with the Brain in Mind, Part 1: How Movement Supports Brain Development
- Moving with the Brain in Mind, Part 2: Movement Activities that Build Skills for Learning
- Preventing Infectious Diseases in Early Childhood Programs, Part 1: How Infectious Diseases Spread and Policies to Reduce Transmission
- Preventing Infectious Diseases in Early Childhood Programs, Part 2: Practices to Prevent Infectious Diseases
- Lead the Center for Early Learning Professionals, providing Rhode Island early childhood educators with an extensive catalog of online and face-to-face learning
- Conduct national webinars and provide resources for educators through the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment
