When I reflect on what I knew about
early childhood systems and public policies, it all seems from rules and
regulations, because of my past experience as a family childcare provider. My
major concern was making sure I was in compliance with what was required by my
state licensing agency, which was Bright from the Start (BFTS). When I was a
family childcare provider in the 1990s' there were not any early childhood
systems and public policies that provided financial assistance to family childcare
providers that I knew of.
After I stopped family childcare and proceeded
into the position of an Early Care and Education Specialist at a resource and referral
(R & R) agency, I learned that the R&R agency were granted federal
funding to assist family child care providers with accreditation, developmental
appropriate materials, and professional development training classes; however the
agency would recruit family childcare providers by telephone in order to reach their
quota. With that type of procedure in place, if a family childcare provider was
not contacted they were basically not in the pool for the benefits. In some instances
funding would be offered to the same set of family childcare providers due to
past experience. Personally, I did not think it was fair to give the benefits to
the same family childcare providers over and over again. I took it upon myself
to advocate by making sure to recruit different family childcare providers
regardless of their status. My reason for doing so was to give family childcare
providers an opportunity of creating their childcare program into a quality
childcare program.
Presently in one of my roles as an
independent state approved early childcare instructor for my nonprofit company,
I have the pleasure of meeting and interacting with family childcare providers
and childcare center staff. Three goals that might assist me in becoming more
effective in my professional role consist of connecting with state agencies
that would grant federal funding to my company, so I could offer free professional
development training to family childcare providers and center staff. To
accomplish this goal, I would have to navigate The Early Care and Education
Systems that embraces the full scope of early childhood care and education
setting such as family childcare. The goal of including technical assistance to
family childcare providers into my services would give me the opportunity to
assist them in creating a quality program by applying what they learned from
their professional development training classes. Since Quality Rating is evident
in the State of Georgia, by navigating the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems,
I am able to assist family childcare providers with developing high quality
childcare services and environments that parents are able see. Another goal
that would not only benefit the early childcare educators that are seeking
services from my company; are the benefits, which involves myself seeking
professional development in order to provide quality services to my
participants. Professional Development in Early Childhood Systems would be
navigated for the trainee and the trainer as well. As instructors we too have
to seek knowledge in order to teach knowledge. Being current with rule,
regulations, and policies allow me to guide family childcare providers in the
path that is required by the state in order to provide quality services to
children and their families.
Build
Initiative. (2013). Early
childhood systems building. Retrieved
Kagan, S.
L., & Kauerz, K. (Eds.). (2012). Early
childhood systems: Transforming early
learning.
New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
