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States and territories have increasingly worked to strengthen their early care and education (ECE) systems to more efficiently and effectively serve young children. It can still be challenging, however, to coordinate ECE systems’ multifaceted funding streams, services, standards, and regulations.This report summarizes publicly available information about the coordination or inclusion of Head Start across various aspects of state and territory ECE systems.
This guidebook describes the steps and best practices for successfully selecting and implementing a parenting intervention. The purpose is to provide program, state, and child care network leaders an easy-to-use tool for implementing a parenting intervention. The guidebook may be used as a companion to the Compendium of Parenting Interventions recently developed by the Health and Human Services Interagency Parenting Group and the Head Start National Center on Family...
This white paper addresses the 2018 revision of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC). Federal statistical agencies use the SOC to classify workers and jobs into occupational categories. ACF’s proposals in this paper include changes to the titles, definitions, and placement of the occupations involving the early childhood care and education (ECCE) workforce....
What does “curriculum” mean when applied to working with infants and toddlers?
This brief discusses the meaning of the term when applied to early education and care programs serving families with infants and toddlers. The discussion focuses on how programs can incorporate and use the concepts of a curriculum in a way that is developmentally appropriate for infants and toddlers...
Defining and monitoring early care and education (ECE) program engagement in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are essential tasks that can inform implementation and improvement efforts. Accurate data about the types of ECE programs that are rated, where they are located, and who they serve can shape outreach and recruitment efforts. The term engagement is used as a broad term in this brief to encompass varying...
Researchers and policymakers in the early care and education (ECE) field are interested in understanding the factors that contribute to successful quality improvement (QI) initiatives in ECE settings. They also want to learn about factors leading to improved outcomes for children and families through successful QI initiatives. One factor posited to influence the success of such initiatives is the readiness of individuals and organizations to adopt new quality improvement practices.
What evidence do we have from the literature on associations between infant/toddler teacher and caregiver preparation (e.g., education, credentials, etc.) and quality of caregiving and child outcomes?...
The descriptive brief provides an overview of the qualifications and the professional development activities of the nation’s infant/toddler workforce, based on representative data collected by the National Survey of Early Care and Education. The goal of this brief is to help the field better understand the strengths and needs of the infant/toddler workforce in center-based as well as home-based early care and education programs...