6.3 Ongoing Training and Professional Development

6.3.1 Required hours of ongoing training Provide the number of hours of ongoing training required annually for CCDF-eligible providers in the following settings: a. Licensed child care centers: Educators in Large Group and School Age Child Care working fewer than ten hours per week shall complete a minimum of five hours of professional development activities per year; 2. Educators working at least ten but fewer than 20 hours per week shall complete a minimum of 12 hours of professional development activities per year; 3. Educators working 20 or more hours per week shall complete a minimum of 20 hours of professional development activities per year. Educators in small group and school age child care must complete ten hours of professional development activities per year. A Note about Diverse Learners: At least one third of the required professional development must address diverse learners. Diverse learners are defined as, Children who have special physical, emotional, behavioral, cognitive or linguistic needs or whose primary learning modality is visual, auditory, tactile or kinesthetic, who may require an adaptation in the environment, interaction or curriculum in order to succeed in their program. b. License-exempt child care centers: 1. Educators in Large Group and School Age Child Care funded programs working fewer than ten hours per week shall complete a minimum of five hours of professional development activities per year; 2. Educators working at least ten but fewer than 20 hours per week shall complete a minimum of 12 hours of professional development activities per year; 3. Educators working 20 or more hours per week shall complete a minimum of 20 hours of professional development activities per year. Educators in small group and school age child care must complete ten hours of professional development activities per year. A Note about Diverse Learners: At least one third of the required professional development must address diverse learners. Diverse learners are defined as, Children who have special physical, emotional, behavioral, cognitive or linguistic needs or whose primary learning modality is visual, auditory, tactile or kinesthetic, who may require an adaptation in the environment, interaction or curriculum in order to succeed in their program. c. Licensed family child care homes: 1. Educators in family child care working more than 25 hours per year but less than 10 hours per week must complete at least 5 hours of professional development activities per year. 2. Educators in family child care working more than 10 hours per week must complete at least 10 hours of professional development per year. A Note about Diverse Learners: At least one third of the required professional development must address diverse learners. Diverse learners are defined as, ￿Children who have special physical, emotional, behavioral, cognitive or linguistic needs or whose primary learning modality is visual, auditory, tactile or kinesthetic, who may require an adaptation in the environment, interaction or curriculum in order to succeed in their program.￿ d. License-exempt family child care homes: EEC does not have license-exempt FCCs e. Regulated or registered in-home child care: EEC does not have licensed ICCs f. Non-regulated or registered in-home child care: All informal funded child care providers are required to complete the 3 hour EEC Essentials Refresher training annually. 6.3.2 Accessibility of professional development for Tribal organizations Describe how the Lead Agency’s training and professional development are accessible to providers supported through Indian tribes or Tribal organizations receiving CCDF funds (as applicable). All EEC-funded training and professional learning opportunities are available and offered free of charge to all educators in the state regardless of program type and location. This includes educators in tribal communities. 6.3.3 Professional development appropriate for the diversity of children, families, and child care providers Describe how the Lead Agency’s training and professional development requirements reflect the diversity of children, families, and child care providers participating in CCDF. To the extent practicable, how does professional development include specialized training or credentials for providers who care for infants or school-age children; individuals with limited English proficiency; children who are bilingual; children with developmental delays or disabilities; and/or Native Americans, including Indians, as the term is defined in Section 900.6 in subpart B of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (including Alaska Natives) and Native Hawaiians? Our network of Professional Development Centers, located in each region throughout the state, provides training at no cost both through synchronous online sessions and in person. Trainings are provided in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin and Cantonese to reflect the main language needs of our workforce. The Professional Learning Communities, as they are called, include training in the following domains: Learning Environments and Curriculum; Guiding and Interacting with Children and Youth; Professionalism and Leadership; Observation, Assessment and Documentation; Partnering with Families and Communities; Program Planning and Development; Health, Safety and Nutrition; Understanding the Growth and Development of Children. In addition, EEC’s partnerships with the fifteen community colleges and Urban College of Boston are centered on the diverse professional development needs of the communities they serve. The Career Pathways grant prioritizes reducing barriers to higher education by providing access to courses in languages other than English. Wrap around supports, including tutoring, mentoring, and academic advising, are part of the design and aim to encourage early educators to pursue additional courses beyond the initial EEC certification requirements. The Professional Development Centers and Professional Development Academy deliver a number of trainings specific to educators working with infants and toddlers. The training entitled ￿Baby Love’ is a two part series regarding the fundamentals of working with infants and toddlers including interactions, transitions and routines. ￿Reality Bites’ is another popular training that focuses on why toddlers bite, how to respond and how to prevent biting from occurring. The ￿Empowering Early Years: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Infants and Toddlers’ training focuses on the concept of developmentally appropriate practice tailored to children aged infant through toddler. Fostering Social Development and Emotional Health in Young Children, focuses on the importance of developing social competence in young children and fostering positive mental health while supporting educators in understanding challenging behaviors. The training, ￿Responsive Environments for Infants and Toddlers’, teaches strategies to provide a responsive environment for infants and toddlers in all child care settings, including educators’ roles in building positive relationships with children and their families. ￿Building Blocks: Infants’ is a training designed to support educators who are new to working with infants; it provides content specific to caring for infants, including the importance of high-quality interactions with babies, safe sleep practices, responsive feeding, and effective diapering routines. To support school-aged children and educators working in after school and out-of-school time programs, EEC’s Professional Development Centers offer a number of training opportunities including, ￿Building Blocks: Working with School Age Children’. The ￿Building Blocks’ training guides educators working with school-age children on how to build a safe, healthy, and happy environment where educators will strive to meet the emotional, social, and physical needs of the school-age child. The ￿Exploring Engagement Through School-Age Curriculum’ training supports educators in recognizing the range of developmental needs of school-age children, how to engage and adjust curriculum and learning activities to best meet the needs of the children in the program. Another opportunity, ￿Out of School Time- Let's break the Ice!’, focuses on the inclusion of play throughout the day to support the emotional and physical development of school-age children specifically. ￿Preventing Summer Learning Loss Out of School Time programs/Afterschool Programs’ provides a framework for summer educational engagement and the importance of doing so to avoid summer learning loss by providing information, resources, tools, and discussions that will help school-age programs strengthen the role that they can play in supporting students and helping them to retain their school-year skills. The Professional Development Centers also focus training on various special needs. There are specific trainings for Autism Spectrum and ADHD as well as an entire series using the Pyramid Model which discusses interventions that improve experiences for all children but especially children with behaviors that challenge. ￿Dual-Language Learners in Early Childhood Education’ teaches strategies for creating a learning environment that welcomes and affirms children’s home language, in this training educators learn developmentally appropriate strategies for supporting young children’s language development and the benefits of multilingualism. Educators also learn strategies for communicating and engaging with families whose language may be different from your own. The ￿Identifying Red Flags in Children’s Development’ training helps educators to identify red flags in development, understand typical developmental milestones, common developmental delays, the importance of observation and communicating sensitive information to families. In the training opportunity, ￿Understanding Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD)’, educators learn the definition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, exhibiting factors to a diagnosis, referral to specialists for assessments and diagnosis, and adapting curriculum to meet the needs of students. ￿Understanding the Autism Spectrum’ is a training opportunity that teaches the five signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), explains the social, communication, and behavior red flags of ASD, and provides strategies that assist ASD children in the classroom. In addition, the ￿Working with Children with Special Diets, Allergies and Specialized Feeding Issues’ training introduces educators to the health and safety needs of children with food allergies, food sensitivities and other feeding issues. These trainings are available to all educators including Native American educators. We do not offer specific training for Native American educators. 6.3.4 Child developmental screening Describe how all providers receive, through training and professional development, information about: (1) existing resources and services the State/Territory can make available in conducting developmental screenings and providing referrals to services when appropriate for children who receive assistance under this part, including the coordinated use of the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment program (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) and developmental screening services available under section 619 and part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1419, 1431 et seq.); and (2) how child care providers may utilize these resources and services to obtain developmental screenings for children who receive assistance and who may be at risk for cognitive or other developmental delays, which may include social, emotional, physical, or linguistic delays: Providers can access development screening information through local school district Child Find efforts. In addition to federal law, Massachusetts state law requires ￿the school committee of every city, town or school district￿ to ￿identify children ages 3 to 21 residing therein who have a disability,￿ as well as ￿diagnose and evaluate the needs of such children, propose a special education program to meet those needs, provide or arrange for the provision of such special education program.￿ These efforts include consistent outreach to all local childcare agencies/programs with regard to conducting developmental screenings and assistance with accessing appropriate services or interventions as needed. In addition to Child Find efforts, programs are also able to access information and instructions on conducting developmental screenings, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) through local Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) programs and the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative efforts. Programs use this ASQ as a Parent Centric approach to pinpoint development progress and identify delays in developmental areas including social, emotional, physical, or linguistic.