Page 330

330 | P a g e FFY 2025–2027 CCDF State Plan

of Programs; and Social Work, Mental Health, and Family Services. Trainings in specialty areas are also reviewed to ensure alignment with state requirements specific to each area. Licensing regulations specify that all staff working in licensed programs must complete at least 10 hours of GTA approved training annually. Through GTA, the Lead Agency can ensure the quality of trainings provided to the workforce. The Lead Agency also maintains a strong relationship with GTA approved trainers providing support and technical assistance to trainers to continue to support quality of trainings. Through this network of support, the Lead Agency can also guide trainers to topic areas that are priorities for the agency. Moving forward, two focus areas for increasing the supply and quality of training will be school age and language/literacy. To increase the supply and quality of school-age trainings, the Lead Agency will work with state experts in school-age programming to support trainers to understand how to develop and deliver training specific to the needs of school-age programs. This work will include supporting trainers in understanding the Georgia After School and Youth Development Standards and aligning their trainings with the standards. Further, the Lead Agency will begin a comprehensive review of all language and literacy trainings approved through GTA to ensure they align with the latest knowledge on the science of reading. Updates to the Georgia Professional Development System will also be made to ensure users are able to easily locate and register for language and literacy trainings. Further, the Lead Agency will continue to expand its Online Learning Library Initiative (OLLI) to add three to five additional trainings on language and literacy as well as three to five additional trainings for school-age professionals. The Lead Agency’s Infant Toddler, SEEDS, and Pre-K Specialists provide professional learning opportunities. There is a current training focus on preventing and addressing, persistent challenging behavior, thereby reducing the likelihood of preschool suspension and expulsion. Professional Learning Communities of directors and teachers are supported by a team of Infant Toddler, Pre-K, and SEEDS Specialists. The Lead Agency also provides the training to early learning technical college faculty on how to embed the content into their course curriculum to be taught to students and prospective early learning educators. These efforts have been funded with recovery act (ARPA) funding in the current year but will be funded with CCDF dollars moving forward. The Lead Agency plans to provide nine cohorts of the training series available for infant and toddler, preschool, Pre-K, and family child care providers over the next three years. As mentioned in section 4.54, the Lead Agency provides an training series for early learning professionals focusing on understanding the importance of the laws that support children with disabilities, and strategies to support all learners in high quality early learning environments. The Lead Agency plans to train 500 educators across the next three years. The lead agency provides a mini -grant to early learning professionals who would benefit from technical assistance to support children with disabilities in their care. Professionals receive coaching and materials to support the child’s development. The Lead Agency plans to fund at least 75 mini-grants over the next three years. As described in section 4.54, the Lead Agency’s Infant and Toddler Program plans to fund three additional cohorts of the LITTLE (Lifting Infants and Toddlers Through Language Rich Environments) with center-based and family child care providers over the next three years. The Infant and Toddler Program will continue coaching Infant and Toddler Programs