Personnel Development

National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (NPDCI)

Although many preschool classrooms have at least one child with a disability or special need, early childhood teachers often have little or no training in educating and caring for these children. The NPDCI will work with states to create a system of high quality, cross-agency professional development for early childhood personnel to support inclusion. NPDCI offers a variety of resources, ranging from a Web site to a national cadre of trainers and consultants, professional development tools, rubrics for evaluating performance, research syntheses, training modules, listservs, publications and institutes. The center will identify and help states implement the most promising professional development approaches currently available within early childhood education. NPDCI will provide intensive technical assistance to selected states.

Statewide System Development

The concept of inclusion is a challenge for service delivery personnel concerned with integration opportunities for young children with disabilities because local educational agencies traditionally did not serve this age group. This section includes state and project models of preparing staff to serve young children with disabilities.

Building the Capacity of Child Care Personnel to Facilitate Inclusion introduces the increasing need for child care settings to be able to provide services to young children with disabilities. As an example of how states can address this need, Oregon's efforts to ensure Quality Child Care for Children with Disabilities are examined, including its Childhood Care and Education Career Development System and the state's Strategic Plan to Improve Access to Child Care for Oregon Children with Special Needs and Their Families.

Passages to Inclusion: Emerging Issues. I. Staffing — This monograph synthesizes the solutions and strategies generated during a 1995 forum in Washington, D.C. on inclusion sponsored by several Federal agencies. Written for child care administrators to foster the inclusion of children with disabilities in child care settings, this section on staffing discusses elements of a comprehensive system for child care personnel: standards and competencies, recruitment, training, compensation, teamwork, and opportunities for career advancement.

SCRIPTS -- Systems Change in Personnel Preparation is a cluster of projects that have studied and continue to explore policies and practices that promote improvements in the preparation of the early childhood intervention workforce, especially those serving infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities and their families.

Training and Technical Assistance Programs

Multi-State:

• The Center for Inclusive Child Care provides on line self study courses for early childhood and school age care professionals interested in increasing their knowledge and awareness about the special needs of children and how to include all children in their settings.
• T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood Project. This North Carolina-based initiative now is operating in 10 states to support the training, professional development, and retention of child care professionals.
• AHEAD (At Home & At Day Care) -- This replicable program, from SKI-HI Institute at Utah State University, trains early interventionists to work with families and child care providers to provide services to young children with disabilities, ages birth to 3 years, in the child's natural environments.
• FACETS: Family-Guided Approaches to Collaborative Early-intervention Training and Services — This project provides "how-to" information and training on family-guided intervention for family members, early interventionists, related service providers, and administrators. Of particular interest at the Project's Web site are family stories and five training modules from the FACETS model.
• Project Support II is a federally funded OSEP project designed to develop and disseminate a model for training early childhood inclusion support professionals. The project includes both inservice and preservice materials, and provides information and strategies appropriate to both itinerant consultation and co-teaching models of inclusion support. Project Support materials include a guide to implementing a field-tested three-phase inservice model for training inclusion support providers.

• Alaska IN Project -- This statewide project supports the inclusion of children with special needs in child care centers through the education and training of child care workers, and the development of collaborative partnerships.

California:

• Beginning Together: Caring for Infants Toddlers with Disabilities and Special Needs in Inclusive Settings This project is offered through the California Institute on Human Services, Sonoma State University (CIHS-SSU) for the California Department of Education, Child Development Division (CDD) in cooperation with WestEd, Center for Child and Family Studies.

Illinois:

• Project CHOICES is a "least restrictive environment" initiative funded by the Illinois State Board of Education which supports preschool-age children.

Michigan:

• Michigan Child Care Futures Project -- Funded by a variety of donors, including the Trust Fund for Children with Special Needs, this program targets family child care providers and currently unregulated providers in an effort to improve the quality of child care through education and training.

Minnesota:

• Project KITE (Kids Included through Technology are Enriched) -- Developed at PACER Center in Minneapolis, this replicable model trains parents and teachers to more effectively include young children with disabilities in their homes and classrooms in culturally sensitive ways through the use of assistive technology. The Web page describes the model and includes a products list.

North Carolina:

• Early Childhood LINK is a pilot training and technical assistance project developed to facilitate provision of transdisciplinary, early intervention services to children (age birth to five) with the low incidence disabilities of visual impairment, autism, deafness/hard of hearing, and related child mental health issues. The site is full of resources and tips for administrators and teachers, including those in community programs, serving these children.
• Partnerships for Inclusion -- This statewide technical assistance project supports the inclusion of young children who have disabilities, ages birth to 5, in community programs across North Carolina.

North Dakota:

• North Dakota Infant/Toddler Enrichment Program -- This statewide program provides training and education for child care workers involving a variety of settings and partners including tribal organizations. The program's overall goal is to improve the quality of child care for all children.

Resources for Institutions of Higher Education

• SCRIPTS -- Systems Change in Personnel Preparation is a cluster of projects that have studied and continue to explore policies and practices that promote improvements in the preparation of the early childhood intervention workforce, especially those serving infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities and their families.(repeated from above in Statewide System Development)