Alabama's Training through Child Care Quality Enhancement Contractors
State:
AL
Region:
4
Category:
Child Care; Parent & Family Involvement; Professional Development; Professional Development
Status:
Active
Year Started:
Administered By:
Department of Human Resources
Description:
The Alabama Department of Human Resources utilizes CCDF funds to offer infant and toddler training through Child Care Quality Enhancement Contractors.
These contractors include five of the six Child Care Management Agencies (CMAs) and several State and non-governmental agencies such as Childcare Education Resources, Childcare Resources and GRCMA Early Childhood Directions that offer Training and Technical Assistance in regions not covered by the CMAs, the Alabama Department of Public Health/Healthy Child Care Alabama, Family Guidance Center/Kids and Kin Program, Auburn University/Family Child Care Partnerships, Northwest-Shoals Community College/Training and Book Distribution, United Cerebral Palsy/Inclusion Project, Alabama Public Television/Ready To Learn, Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education/Leadership in Child Care Scholarship Program, and Alabama Partnership for Children/T.E.A.CH. Early Childhood® Alabama.
Embedded within training targeted to specific categories of caregivers (Center providers, home providers, relative providers) are workshops, courses and programs that focus on infant and toddler care for children from birth through two and a half years in all applicable provider settings.
Several Quality Contractors collaborate with Alabama Public Television to offer training through the "Right From Birth: A Parenting Series" distance learning project that is targeted at parents and caregivers of children from birth to 18 months. This distance learning program is designed to enhance parents' and caregivers' understanding of current research on early childhood development, with an emphasis on infants and toddlers.
Childcare Resources implements the Infant Toddler Priority Outreach initiative that concentrates on improving infant toddler care by providing on-site assessment, consultation, training and support to infant and toddler classrooms in child care centers serving children from birth through two and a half years.
Family Guidance Center implements the Infant/Toddler Teacher Support Project, a mentoring program where infant rooms and toddler rooms in participating centers have the ITERS assessment completed by a mentor and an action plan developed that may include modeling and training sessions. Fiscal year 2007 was the first year of the Childcare Resources and Family Guidance infant and toddler initiatives.