Session 11: Modern History and Its Effects

 

Purposes and Learning Outcomes

Purposes

 

Outcomes

At the end of this session students will be able to

 

 

Reading Assignments and Resources

Who Am I in the Lives of Children, 8thed
Chapter 3, pp. 74-88;
Chapter 2 pp. 37-39 (start at Child Care Issues; stop at Head Start); pp. 40-41 (Start at Research; stop at Parent Education Programs.)

 

Session 11 Checklist (of things to submit)

1 - Session 11 Mini Assignment 1: Mandatory and Voluntary Standards for Early Childhood Programs - due in by Mon, April 4 at 12pm

2 - Session 11: Journal Reflection - due in Forums by Mon., April 4 at 12pm

 

Session 11 Overview of Modern History of Early Care and Education

View the Powerpoint presentation in Resources- Session 11, Modern History of ECE for an overview of the modern history of early care and education.

 

Session 11: Mini Assignment 1: Mandatory and Voluntary Standards for Early Childhood Programs due in Assignments by Mon, April 4 at 12pm

Purposes:

To become familiar with Childcare Licensing Rules and Regulations and NAEYC Program Accreditation Standards

To compare and contrast licensing standards and accreditation standards

 

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this session students will be able to

 

Introduction

This mini-assignment includes completing a worksheet and posting parts of it inline to Assignments and to the Forums topic, Mandatory and Voluntary Standards

 

Mandatory Standards

Childcare programs that serve children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age are required to comply with the Child Care Licensing Regulations of the State Department of Human Services. Childcare regulations are mandatory and have the same effect as law: if programs are found in violation they can be fined or, if children are endangered, closed. The programs that must be licensed include childcare centers, preschools, infant/toddler centers, Head Start, Early Head Start, and family child care homes. Family Child Interaction Learning Programs (FCIL) are not required to be licensed because the parent or guardian attends the program with the child. (After school programs not in the Department of Education are also required to be licensed.)

 

The National Association of Regulatory Administrations (NARA) describes childcare licensing in this way:

State childcare licensing regulations and monitoring and enforcement policies help provide a baseline of protection for the health and safety of children in out-of-home care. Licensing helps prevent various forms of harm to children—risks from the spread of disease, fire and other building safety hazards, injury, and developmental impairment from the lack of healthy relationships with adults, adequate supervision, and developmentally appropriate activities. Executive Summary, Childcare Licensing Study, 2005

 

In Hawai`i three types of programs have separate childcare rules: (1) Group Child Care Centers and Group Child Care Homes (one set), (2) Infant Toddler Child Care Centers, and (3) Family Child Care Homes.

 

Voluntary Standards

Accreditation standards are voluntary – not required. Although they address many of the same areas as licensing regulations, they have higher requirements and address some areas that licensing does not. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the largest accreditor of early childhood programs in the United States. NAEYC describes accreditation in this way:

NAEYC Accreditation of Programs for Young Children seeks to enhance children's well-being and early learning by improving the quality of early childhood programs serving children birth through kindergarten.  The NAEYC Academy For Early Childhood Program Accreditation sets and monitors standards for high quality programs for young children and accredits programs that meet these standards -- the mark of quality in early childhood education. NAEYC web site: http://www.naeyc.org/academy/primary/academy

If you want to know more about accreditation, go to this url: http://www.naeyc.org/academy/

You can also read a little more about each standard at this url: http://www.naeyc.org/store/taxonomy/term/1464
 

To find accredited programs in Hawai`i, go to this url:

http://www.naeyc.org/academy/primary/find
 

Assignment Preview

Download from the Assignment for Session 11:

            Group Childcare and Group Childcare Homes,

            Infant and Toddler Childcare, and

            Family Childcare.

(The pdf files are somewhat large, about 2.3 MB each, so you may not want to download them all at the same time.)

Complete the chart on the Worksheet by finding the answers to the following questions for EACH set of licensing rules:

What are the ratios of children to adults for the different age groups?

What are the education and experience requirements for providers or staff?

What are the health standards for children?

What are the health requirements for staff or providers?

What are the requirements for communication with parents?

Respond to the other questions on the Worksheet:

What is similar in the three sets of standards for each item? What is different?

How easy or hard is it to find the information?

How easy or hard is it to understand the regulation?

What topics in the accreditation standards are also addressed in childcare licensing regulations?

What topics in the accreditation standards are not addressed in childcare licensing regulations?

What do you think are the major differences between the two types of standards (mandatory licensing and voluntary accreditation)?

Why are childcare rules and regulations important?

Why are program accreditation standards important, or are they?

 

Post your responses inline to the questions on the Worksheet (do not try to paste the table): "Summary comparison of licensing regulations" and "Comparison of NAEYC program standards to licensing standards" in Assignments by Monday, April 4 at 12pm.

 

Session 11: Journal Reflection - due in Forums by Mon., April 4 at 12pm

Quality, Compensation and Affordability (QCA) – Why They Matter

Purpose: To consider how the quality of early childhood programs, compensation for staff and affordability for families (QCA) interact and why they are important.

Learning Outcome: At the end of this activity, students will have identified why quality, compensation and affordability are all important in order to provide effective early childhood programs for children and families, and reflected on the challenges of bringing the three into balance in the future.

What To Do

Read the discussion in the text on the issues of Quality, Compensation, and Affordability (pp. 37-39). Think about an early childhood program you know (perhaps the one you visited for this Unit's assignment). Could you see any of the ideas about the interaction of Quality, Compensation, and Affordability in that program? Were the staff well paid? Was the tuition affordable for families? Was the program of high quality? Go to the Session 11 Journal Reflection in Forums and respond to the  topic, QCA – Why They Matter by Friday.

Reflection Preview:

 Why is it important to provide high quality care and education in an early childhood program?

Why do teachers and other staff need adequate pay and benefits?

What happens when families cannot afford to pay the cost of quality programs that pay adequate salaries and benefits to staff?

In your ideal program what would you do to ensure that the program was of high quality, the staff received adequate compensation, and the families could afford the tuition?

How hard do you think it will be to achieve this ideal in the future? Why?

 

Preparing for Session 13

View the Powerpoint Presentation by former State Senator Norman Sakamoto on Early Childhood Education in Hawai`i found in Resources- Session 11: Early Education Hi ppt. We will discuss in Session 13. No submission is required.


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