Overview

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Early childhood system professionals’ capacity for collaborative relationships and partnering impacts the early relationships and experiences that build the social, emotional, and cognitive development of very young children. Learn about one state’s vision, model, and competency-based approach to strengthening early childhood professionals’ capacities for collaboration across early childhood systems.

Faculty & P-5 Competency Domains

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Faculty: Brandy Fox, LCSW, The Pennsylvania Keys; Christina Nigrelli, MA, EdS, ZERO TO THREE; Kristen Greene, PhD, ZERO TO THREE

P-5 Competency Domains: 

• P-5 (8) Service Planning, Coordination, and Collaboration
• P-5 (6) Leadership to Meet Family Needs and Improve Services and Systems

Presenters have affirmed that they do not have proprietary interest in products, instruments, devices, services or materials discussed in this event, and have confirmed that they have not been compensated in relation to this presentation.

Overview

Leading infant–toddler care and education programs during times of uncertainty requires leaning on relationship-based practices more than ever. It also requires flexibility, responsivity, and planning to ensure that leaders support staff and families to maintain and strengthen secure and trusting relationships that promote infant–toddler learning and development. This Issue Intensive will explore what it means to be an instructional leader in an infant–toddler educational setting in 2020. You will learn about leadership strategies that promote effective and responsive teaching practices and learning environments for infants and toddlers inclusive of center-based, home-based, and family child care. The session will also share effective strategies for developing and relying on relationship-based policies and practices that will help you lead with a social justice and equity lens, particularly during uncertain and stressful times.

Faculty & P-5 Competency Domains

Faculty: Allyson Dean, EdD, ZERO TO THREE; Cathy Tsao, PhD, WestEd; Cheryl Williams-Jackson, PsyD, Modesto Junior College

P-5 Competency Domains:

• P-5 (3) Relationship-Based Practice
• P-5 (6) Leadership to Meet Family Needs and Improve Services and Systems

Presenters have affirmed that they do not have proprietary interest in products, instruments, devices, services or materials discussed in this event, and have confirmed that they have not been compensated in relation to this presentation.

First responder interactions with families and young children are often stressful or frightening. Through a citywide cross-agency partnership, we offer a strategies-focused training that is grounded in trauma-informed care principles and promotes child resilience. Join us to learn about the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Compassionate Response curriculum.

Abigail Jewkes Velikov,

Rebecca Parlakian, Senior Director of Programs

Early educator apprenticeships and residency programs have the potential to transform both the quality of childcare and the access the early care and education field has to high quality professional learning and higher education. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with projections related to ongoing turnover in the field indicate that the need to invest in robust workforce development initiatives will be particularly acute in the coming years. And because the skills, knowledge, and competencies of those who teach and care for young children is the most impactful element of an ECE program, it is essential to create professional development pathways for childcare teachers that lead to higher credentials, recognize their existing skills, and compensate them justly. New Federal funds, including the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”), offer a critical opportunity to invest in the necessary one-time planning costs to establish high-quality residency or apprenticeship programs for early childhood educators. In this workshop, members of the Learning Starts At Birth initiative at Bank Street College will share key design recommendations, cost considerations, and a free cost estimation tool for states, cities, and communities interested in establishing robust apprenticeship/residency models that support the ECE workforce in the complex task of fostering the foundation of early learning.

Brandy Jones Lawrence, Executive Director

Attendees are encouraged to come build their practice in humanizing virtual learning and integrate evidence-informed applications available in the early childhood education field to support their creation of cutting-edge virtual learning. The first part of this session will focus on practical strategies for trainers and professional development creators to design humanizing and equitable virtual learning spaces. The second part of the session will build on current science and unique models of adult learning and professional development.

Lisa Wilson, Director of Equity and Outreach

Renee Marshall, Education Consultant

Attendees are encouraged to come build their practice in humanizing virtual learning and integrate evidence-informed applications available in the early childhood education field to support their creation of cutting-edge virtual learning. The first part of this session will focus on practical strategies for trainers and professional development creators to design humanizing and equitable virtual learning spaces. The second part of the session will build on current science and unique models of adult learning and professional development.

Lisa Wilson, Director of Equity and Outreach

Renee Marshall, Education Consultant

Professor Masten will present a contemporary perspective on multisystem resilience in development and its implications for protecting young children. She will highlight lessons from research on resilience in the context of adversity during early childhood, drawing examples from her own research and the global literature on resilience in diverse conditions of threat, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sponsored by: 

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Ann S. Masten, Regents Professor of Child Development

Joy Osofsky, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry; Professor of Child Welfare and Psychiatry

BT-B5, Introductory-Level: Nosotros Jugamos: Culturally And Linguistically Sensitive Cooperative Learning Caregiver-Infant/Toddler Groups For The Latinx Community

Nosotros Jugamos is a culturally responsive and evidence-informed Spanish language parent-child play and parenting support group. This session will orient participants to this cooperative learning caregiver-infant/toddler group model, including its infant and early childhood mental health, culturally and linguistically sensitive, and child development psychoeducation components.

BT-B5, Introductory-Level: EHR-->EI: A Systems Integration Approach To Reducing Inequities In Early Intervention Referrals And Increasing Retention

The NYC Early Intervention Program and NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) collaborated to reduce racial inequities in early intervention (EI) referrals and retention. The collaborators incorporated the EI referral form into the EPIC EHR and implemented bi-directional data exchange and follow-up, expanding from three sites during 2021 to more than 20 sites in February 2022.

BT-B6, Intermediate-Level: Where To Start? Growing The Infant Mental Health Workforce From Scratch

Building an infant mental health workforce is no easy task—the landscape and readiness of every community differs. Learn how Hawaii is combining both policy and practice to effectively build its workforce and gain a greater understanding of the field serving your community.

Erin Flanagan,

Mariana Cerqueira,

Elizabeth Rubio,

Tania Corporan, Project Manager

Katharine McVeigh,

Nura Anwar,

Erin Henderson Lacerdo, IMH Fellow

Justina Acevedo-Cross,

Erin Henderson Lacendo, Executive Director

BT-F1, Intermediate-Level: ECE Neighborhood Villages: Rethinking Early Care And Educational Infrastructure, Supports, And Capacity Building

The session will present the Neighborhood Villages (NV) model and advocacy efforts, to date. The session will offer detailed information about NV’s innovations and implementation strategies that can be considered by program administrators, policymakers, and researchers for developing early childhood education supports/innovations and facilitating practice and policy change.

BT-F2, Intermediate-Level: Maine's Effort To Support The ECE Workforce

Across the country, child care programs struggle to recruit and retain qualified educators. This talk will focus on the key components of a successful private/public partnership in Maine that led to the governor leading a proposal to increase compensation for the early childhood education workforce.

BT-F3, Intermediate-Level: Tennessee First Five Training Institute: Three Years Of Workforce Development In Review

The Tennessee First Five Training Institute (TFFTI) established a state-wide intensive workforce development project in 2019. In the 3 years since its inception, TFFTI has increased the infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) workforce by 500%, promoted conversations of specialized funding for IECMH services, and fostered Tennessee to adopt the DC:0–5 for assessment and billing.

Sarah Siegel Muncey, Co-Founder and Executive

Binal Patel,

Ana Hicks,

Todd Landry,

Alison Peak, Policy Counsel

Review a major initiative building competencies of early childhood professionals in infant and early childhood mental health, in licensed outpatient clinics and across child-serving systems. Hear about the success of the three-pronged approach that links clinical services with training and a focus on business sustainability.

Evelyn Blanck, Executive Director

Meaghan Baier,

Fatima Kadik,

Journey through the data cycle with Educare Lincoln. Learn how school leaders have utilized program data to guide them in the implementation of embedded professional development. Attendees will have an opportunity to explore a data dialogue and practice planning embedded professional development routines.

Jessica Haremza Diop, Early Childhood Practice Consultant

The early childhood workforce experiences system challenges across health care, education and care, mental health, child welfare, and early intervention. This session examines key challenges across disciplines—compensation, burnout, safety, and retention, which undermine workforce effectiveness, exacerbated by the pandemic. It highlights strategies for policymakers and program directors.

Megan Carolan, Vice President of Research

This session highlights novel, competency-based approaches to infant-toddler practitioner coaching and mentoring developed by two Illinois institutions. Participants will learn how unique, intentionally designed coaching and mentoring models create rich and engaged learner experiences, expand higher education and workplace partnerships, and support quality infant-toddler programming.

Erika Gustafson Dietz,

Johnna Darragh-Ernst,