Family engagement is essential to high quality services for all children in early childhood care and education. From the beginning of life, families nurture their children and the capacities they will need to be ready for school. The Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework for Early Childhood Systems is a guide to understanding…

This Reflection on Practice is based upon a change in the undergraduate course "Family and Community Relations." Historically, this course has been taught on campus in a lecture format, as well as small and large group activities. However, during a spring semester at a midsized Midwestern University, it was altered to provide more direct…

About one in five Minnesota children under age 8 has a parent who speaks a language other than English at home. These Dual Language Learners (DLLs), who numbered 136,000 in 2011-15, come from a wide array of national, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds--a reflection of Minnesota's sizeable refugee communities from East Africa and Southeast Asia…

The Learning Together longitudinal study focuses on four counties' efforts to expand bachelor's degree opportunities in early care and education (ECE) for adults currently working in the field. The "student cohort" model--in which small groups of ECE students with similar interests and characteristics pursue a bachelor's degree together,…

In 1997, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to pass legislation establishing an education and support program for family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care providers. This article describes the Minnesota Family, Friend and Neighbor Grant Program and findings from an evaluation of the programs and a curriculum scan of materials used in…

The "Learning Together" longitudinal study focuses on four counties' efforts to expand bachelor's degree opportunities in early care and education (ECE) for adults currently working in the field. The "student cohort model"--in which small groups of ECE students with similar interests and characteristics pursue a bachelor's…

Interest in expanding access to higher education has been driven by concerns about ethnic and linguistic stratification within the early childhood workforce, and building a pipeline for diversifying the early care and education (ECE) field's leadership. "Cohort" B.A. completion programs, which target small groups of adults working in ECE…

This brief summarizes the working paper, "The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain," and explains why neglect, or the absence of responsive, supportive care, can affect the formation of the developing brain, impairing later learning, behavior, and health. The brief also includes…

In recent years, growing knowledge of the critical importance of early childhood development for lifelong learning and growth had led to increased calls for the professionalism of early childhood educators, including higher standards for their training and education. As part of this attention to professional development, many states are…

This report reflects the first year of a multiyear effort to examine B.A. completion cohort programs in early care and education in four California counties. The six programs under investigation were developed with similar goals: (1) To increase and retain a pool of B.A.-level professionals in the ECE field with culturally, linguistically, and…

In efforts to address child care provider concerns about the staffing crisis, many Smart Start counties in North Carolina are seeking to implement substitute programs to promote release time for child caregivers to return to school or to cover staff illness and leave time. This type of substitute program involves the use of regularly employed,…

One way that child care programs can help prepare future professionals in the field is to offer opportunities for the student to gain real life experience in a program. This is where internships are indispensable. An internship will help a novice develop their skills under the watchful eye of a more seasoned mentor. With internships, not only is…

Family, friend and neighbor care has frequently been characterized in the media, and even in the early care and education field, as "substandard, unregulated care," a "fall-back" position when parents can not find or afford a regulated setting. However, up until quite recently, there was virtually no research to support any…

CONTENT IS OUTLINED FOR POST-SECONDARY, PREEMPLOYMENT OR UPGRADING COURSES TO PREPARE CHILD CARE WORKERS TO WORK IN DAY CARE OR CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTERS, NURSERY SCHOOLS, KINDERGARTENS, CAMPS, ETC. THE DEVELOPMENT GROUP CONSISTED OF A COMMITTEE AND SUBJECT MATTER SPECIALISTS AT THE STATE LEVEL. COURSES ARE THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF DAY CARE FOR…

Noting demographic pressures and increased poverty most countries experience, this report shows how parents and family members can work in their communities in developing countries to provide low-cost and efficient child care facilities for very young children and explains how such community-based early childhood programs benefit whole families.…