Welcome! Welcome to the third edition of the Professional Development (PD) Newsletter; a quarterly newsletter from the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) for Washington’s early learning community. The goal of the newsletter is to keep you informed on all of the great work pertaining to PD.

In this newsletter... A Message from the Secretary | Changes to Licensed Child Care

Community Corner: North Seattle College and Yakima Valley College

Training Updates

Help Expand Washington's State Trainer and Training Quality Program

Relationship-Based Professional Development

Strengthening Business Practices (New Training Coming!)

Licensing Orientation Update

Coaching Companion 2.0 is here!

Child Care Basics – What is it, who needs it and how do I take it?

July MERIT Updates

A Message from the Secretary | Changes to Licensed Child Care A recent message from DCYF's Secretary Ross Hunter was sent out to all licensed center and family home providers in relation to the changes coming to early learning licensing.

Here are some key takeaways relating to professional development you should know:

Education requirements do not have to be completed by August 1, 2019. Take a look at the education requirements flyer to learn more.

As part of the licensing standards, we have established some requirements about credentials for early learning staff. We recognize that there are multiple paths to meeting these requirements – check out our chart of equivalents on page 34 of our Foundational Quality Standards Guide to find out how your past education may count toward our early learning requirements.

We are designing a process for existing licensed providers to demonstrate competency in our licensing standards in partnership with the community college system. We will need to pursue funding before this is made available.

Read the full article by clicking this link.

Community Corner: North Seattle College and Yakima Valley College

Advocacy Night at North Seattle College

For two years now, the North Seattle College (NSC) has gathered students and community partners together for an Early Childhood Education (ECE) advocacy night. The picture above and the ones below are from the two most recent advocacy nights this year.

The primary goal of the event is to help students become “informed advocates for sound educational practices and policies” as they actively weigh in on workforce development policy

design(National Association for the Education of Young Children, NAEYC). This is a fun and meaningful way to collectively participate in the early learning movement.

In terms of direct funding and professional faculty/staff time, the requirements are light but the rewards are powerful. The more events like this happen, the more we will create a groundswell of political support for ECE.

North Seattle College Wants to Hear From You

If other colleges or organizations are interested in hosting such an event or would like a copy of the Advocacy Event Summary, you are encouraged to reach out to Annie Garret, Early Childhood Education BAS Manager.

Thank You The project has resulted from the hard work of NSC's interns, student volunteers and community partners, including DCYF and Child Care Aware.

NSC would like to give a shout-out and thank you to the following individuals who helped make this event a success:

Angela Abrams Professional Development Administrator at DCYF for helping to guide and execute the event. Angela consulted on the agenda, welcomed the students, helped to recruit focus group facilitators and planned the strategy for future advocacy work.

Ryan Pricco Policy Director at Child Care Aware worked alongside Angela on all matters and also gave a speech on the current ECE policy landscape.

Meka Riggins Senior Program Manager at Child Care Aware who leads the culminating conversation.

Updates from Yakima Valley College

ECE-IBEST Program: Community-Based Cohort Model

Yakima Valley College (YVC) is excited to announce the hiring of seven new bilingual ECE faculty members to the IBEST program. They will support Yakima Valley providers in meeting the updated General Staff Qualification for Early Learning Programs.

I-BEST, or Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training, pairs a professional or technical program with Adult Basic Education courses, including reading, writing and math skills.

This a community-based, integrated approach to serving non-native English speaking students seeking WA State educational requirements.

YVC seeks to support ECE-IBEST students through advising, weekend classes and in-class mentoring.

YVC hired a bilingual student support staff to eliminate some of the obstacles faced such as navigating the college system.

In Spring 2019, more than 130 providers attended the informational night, pictured below. Of those who attended, half are returning bilingual providers/students seeking their ECE Short Certificate.

New MATH 130 Course for ECE Professionals In Spring 2019, the YVC math department in conjunction with the education department was successful in approving a college-level math course focused for early childhood educators. It will meet the WA State ECE General Certificate quantitative (QR) distribution.

This course for early childhood educators provides the mathematical foundations for quantitative concepts appropriate for children from birth through grade 3. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Patterns

Sequencing

Number systems and computation

Problem-solving strategies

Methods used are interactive, activity-based and guided by national and state mathematics education standards. This course emphasizes conceptual understanding, connections among topics and communication of mathematical thinking.

What are you up to? If you have exciting news, program updates or you'd like to feature the work you've been doing that relates to PD, send it our way and we'll feature it in the next PD Newsletter.

Send your information to Marlene White.

Training Updates

OSPI Clock Hours The policy at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) was recently updated and all in-service hours (STARS) from DCYF will be accepted as clock hours according to WAC 181-85-025(6). This goes into effect late August.

Early learning providers will self-report their clock hours to OSPI and ensure their in-service training hours are recorded in their professional record in MERIT as a record for OSPI.

To learn more about this and other updates, check out the State of Washington Professional Educator Standards Board website or register for one of their webinars.

Tuesday, September 10 at 4 p.m. Register online.

Thursday, October 24 at 11 a.m. Register online.

Please email us if you have any questions at training@dcyf.wa.gov

Help Expand Washington's State Trainer and Training Quality Program

Trainer Advisory Board The Trainer Advisory Board (TAB) is currently recruiting for the next session. The TAB advises DCYF on trainer and training quality assurance policies and practices. Members serve a two-year term and responsibilities include:

Completing a minimum of two observations of trainer applicants and current state-approved trainers

Attending quarterly meetings

Providing recommendations for trainer support and relationship-based mentoring

TAB consists of professionals in higher education, community-based trainers, state agencies and community organizations. A priority for TAB is that members represent our diverse communities through their language, culture and experience. To apply, complete the application and submit to training@dcyf.wa.gov.

Learn more about TAB.

Trainer Observer Pool Do you have a desire to observe applying and established trainers across the state? Want to influence the work done by the TAB? To better serve our trainers across the state, we're looking to add to our pool of trainer observers and are seeking individuals from your community that represent your language and culture. If you have a passion for helping Washington trainers develop and ensuring that early learning professionals are receiving quality

training, complete the application and submit to training@dcyf.wa.gov.

Learn more about the Trainer Observer Pool here.

Relationship-Based Professional Development

The Relationship-Based Professional Development (RBPD) Workgroup has made revisions to the standards and competencies to reflect a wide range of feedback from the field. We have a first draft of the leveled standards and competencies complete and we want to hear from you.

Tell us what you think! We are eager to hear from the field about this draft of the RBPD Standards. The public comment period will be open between July 15-31 and you can share your feedback in the following ways:

1. Provide your feedback through this survey

2. Or tune-in to the following webinar options:

July 25, 2019, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., Password: RBPD

o Join by phone: 1-360-810-3022 US Toll

o Access code: 801 537 645

July 30, 2019, from 1-2 p.m., Password: RBPD

o Join by phone: 1-360-810-3022 US Toll

o Access code: 809 403 262

Strengthening Business Practices (New Training Coming!) A new six-hour training will provide child care professionals an opportunity to focus on the foundational, practical aspects of running and sustaining their child care business.

Providers learn together, from the trainer, the curriculum and each other.

This training was piloted in multiple locations around Washington in June. An updated, statewide version of this training will become available in 2020. Watch for additional updates in the next PD newsletter.

Licensing Orientation Update

If you have been promoted to a role or are in a position that now requires orientation, you can now complete orientation online in the comfort of your home.

Licensing Orientation has been updated to reflect WAC 110-300.

If you have previously completed licensing orientation for your role, you do not need to complete the updated orientation.

Roles that must complete orientation include:

Program supervisors

Center directors

Assistant directs

Family home licensees.

Family home licensee lead teacher.

o This is a new role that is required to complete this training if they are in charge of the early learning program 50 percent or more of the time.

Orientation is available on our training portal: dcyftraining.com. It is available online in English, Spanish and Somali.

For more information or if you'd like to request an in-person training, email dcyf.welcome@dcyf.wa.gov.

Coaching Companion 2.0 is here!

The upgraded version is cleaner and faster, giving the user more accessible video uploading capabilities, a wider range of media resources and a community of practice platform.

Learn more about this tool at the upcoming Elevate Early Learning Conference.

Child Care Basics – What is it, who needs it and how do I take it? Child Care Basics is the Initial Training Requirement that must be completed prior to being granted a license for a licensee, prior to working unsupervised, within three months of hire or three months from the date this rule becomes effective (August 1, 2019) if you are an existing employee.

Important things to keep in mind.

New employees must complete Child Care Basics or Health, Safety and Nutrition (ECED&107)

If you have already met your initial training requirement, whether you have an education exemption, or completed the 20 hours when that was the rule and your training has been recorded in MERIT, you do not need to complete Child Care Basics again.

Education exemptions will no longer be applied as of August 1, 2019.

Certificates older than seven years will no longer be accepted as of August 1, 2019.

You can reference the Child Health and Safety Supplemental Guide to learn more about the Health and Safety topics that were added into Child Care Basics in the latest update.

The guide is available in English, Spanish and Somali languages and can be found on DCYF’s Training page.

July MERIT Updates

Home Visitor Family Engagement Short Certificate

A new Short Certificate was added to the list of credentials available within the education application. You will find this credential within the certificate section of the application and, similar to the other Short Certificates, is payable for an award of $50.

Initial Basic Training: Requirement Met The initial training requirement, Child Care Basics, can be met by completing the 30 hour Child Care Basics course, the ECE Initial Certificate or the college course Health, Safety and Nutrition (ECED&107).

Once one of those three options is complete, “requirement met” will display on the individual’s professional record in MERIT.

If you previously had “education exemption” listed on your professional record, you will continue to see the exemption displayed.

As of August 1, an exemption for this requirement will no longer be available.

CCDF Topics

We are currently creating a way that allows early learning professionals to locate in-service trainings by specific topic areas. This will allow users to have a better understanding of a training's content outside the specified competency areas the State Approved Trainer is touching on. If a training does contain specific topics, the training attendee will also see that reflected in their professional record.

Newsletters & Webinars

Previous PD Newsletter's can now be found on the DCYF website.

Visit DCYF's Newsletters and Webinars page to find archived newsletters and other information to stay up-to-date on all things professional development.

Esta newsletter estará disponible en español en nuestro sitio web. Busca la edición de julio: DCYF's Newsletters and Webinars page

Joornaalkaan waxaa lagu heli karaa isagoo ku qoran af-soomaali websaydhka. U fiirso daabacaadda Luulyo: DCYF's Newsletters and Webinars page

How are we doing? Please let us know how we're doing by taking this brief survey.

If you have a question, suggestion or want to reach out, please e-mail Marlene White.

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