Strong supports for children’s social-emotional growth in early care and education (ECE) programs are critical to children’s well-being and social-emotional growth, which are foundational to early learning and later school success. These supports also help teachers positively address children’s behavior challenges, reducing programs’ use of exclusionary practices, which are harmful to children and families. While most states have established a variety of quality supports for ECE programs, including different forms of professional development (PD) and infant-early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC), decisions about investments in quality supports are often made without adequate knowledge about the features, capacity, and accessibility of all quality supports across different parts of the state.
This project will partner with ECE leaders in multiple states–including Delaware, Maine, and New York–to engage in two types of activities: 1) a state resource analysis and use of results to strengthen quality supports for ECE teachers and directors in their state, and 2) activities that promote peer learning across states and the sharing of lessons in the wider field. Through interviews with providers of PD and IECMHC, the resource analysis will examine features of ECE quality supports that are likely to influence programs’ access to supports and whether these supports have desired impacts. These features include the availability of different types of PD and IECMH in different regions of the state, the likely effectiveness of supports (based on features, such as coaching, associated with greater impacts in research), and any mechanisms (outreach, a warmline) that help ECE programs access the supports. State partners will be engaged throughout the process to examine the results and options for strengthening a system of social-emotional focused quality supports for ECE programs
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Ferguson
ferguson@nccp.org