Child Care Directors Choose the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project as their First Point of Contact

Both Kellie Brower, director of The GoddardSchool of Chapel Hill for two years, and Valerie Morris, owner and director ofBeginning Visions Child Development Center & School in Alamance County for20 years, had to recently recertify their centers. Both turned to the Infant-ToddlerQuality Enhancement Project (ITQEP) for help.

Kellie “didn’t feel comfortable enough to leadthe faculty” of her center into recertification on her own and reached out toAmanda Hazen, one of the infant-toddler specialists at ITQEP. When Valerie’scenter needed recertification, ITQEP reached out to her, and she found it to bevery helpful. Whether it’s two years or 20 years, ITQEP is there to assist eventhe most seasoned directors and staff achieve quality infant-toddler care.

What isthe Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project?

In 2004, the NC Division of Child Developmentand Early Education, in collaboration with the NC Resources and ReferralCouncil, established the statewide Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project(ITQEP). Operated by Early Years , the NC ITQEPsupports the development of higher quality infant and toddler classrooms in allof North Carolina’s 100 counties by providing specially trained infant-toddlerspecialists across the state for coaching, mentoring and consultation toteachers and directors of early care and education centers.

HowDoes the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project Help Child Care Directors?

“[ITQEP] helped us get ready for stars,”Kellie said. “With the new rules that have come out, [ITQEP] explained them andprovided suggestions to get us over the hump…Honestly, they are my firstpoint of contact whenever I have any questions. They have been seriouslyamazing. Always get back to me quickly, it never takes them long at all. Theyalways seem to be available and happy to help, so it’s been really great.”

The NC Division of Child Development and EarlyEducation issues star rated licenses to all eligible child care centers andfamily child care homes based on indicators of a program’s quality of care andeducation.[1] Child care programs can receive one to five stars. Thestar-rated license acts as a “roadmap” for providers to follow as they striveto improve the quality of their care.[2]

“Honestly, I would say them helping us withthe stars rating [has been my favorite], because it is such a taxing procedure,and I can’t do it all by myself,” Kellie said. “Having that extra support meansthe world to me. It’s worth it to have them come in and be an outsider to lookin, you know, to see what they see, because sometimes I’ll go into a classroom15 times and I won’t see the things that they see, because that is somethingthat I’m looking at every day.”

“I want to make sure we’re doing the rightthing and we’re staying up to date,” Valerie said. “The rules and regulations,especially with the [ITERS] scales, change so much and so often that sometimesI have to get outside help to come in and remind me of things to keep me on topof the game.”

In order for programs toachieve a higher star rating, they must be accessed with the environment ratingscale, which measures both quality and education. The Infant-ToddlerEnvironment Rating Scale (ITERS) assesses child care programs for childrenbirth to 2 ½ years of age.

“Definitely by far, [ITQEP] has been myfavorite service,” Valerie said. “Amanda has been very thorough and veryconsistent. She finished the whole thing. Sometimes I have people come and itseems like we lose contact, but Amanda went out of her way and followed up tothe end, and still after that, she contacts me regularly to ask me if I needanything, or if I have any questions, or to share an update she learned…She’svery enlightening.”

How doTeachers Apply the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project in the Classroom?

Knowing the reasons why, and not only how, arejust as important for teachers when applying new lessons and suggestions frominfant-toddler specialists in the classroom. “We had a question about an infantdiaper changing procedure,” said Kellie. ITQEP specialists visited and “[made]it easier for me to give our teachers why we’re doing it and how we’re doingit. It’s just easier to apply in the classroom if I also have reasons why.”

“[ITQEP has] been really informative,” Kelliesaid. “Every time they come in, they are giving us something, whether it istips and tricks, suggestions, encouragements, which is great, but it’s alsonice because even if they’re just giving information to me, I can easily trainthe staff… then they always follow-up to make sure that we’ve been able toimplement their suggestions, and if we weren’t, they come up with newsuggestions.”

“[ITQEP Specialist Amanda] created an artcarrier for the young ones, the ones that are one turning into the age whenthey have art,” Valerie said. “She made a little carrier so it would be easierto pull it out and put it back up. Sometimes with the older toddlers, we wouldleave the art out, but it would kind of make a mess, so she said you don’t haveto leave it out all the time, put it in this carrier and it’s easy. You canpull it out when you’re ready to use it, as long as you make it accessible tothem for an hour or so a day.”

“[ITQEP Specialists also] helped us redo theschedule to make the teachers’ schedule run smoother, so they wouldn’t have todo so much hand washing,” Valerie said. “Let’s go outside, come straight in andwash hands, and then sit at the table, rather than coming in, washing hands,playing for a little bit and then washing hands again and sitting down. Itsaves us some time.”

Kellie has also noticed a change in her howher teachers relate to the children.

“I’ve just noticed so much more focus on tummytime and [our teachers] understand why it’s important to physical development,”Kellie said. “Language was something that some of our teachers were strugglingwith because they had also come from ECERS classes and they just didn’t knowhow to relate to the younger children. So, I’ve also noticed a huge differencein the language between the teachers and the children, which has been great.”

“[ITQEP specialists] genuinely have the bestinterest of the infants and toddlers at heart,” Kellie said. “There’s never aquestion of what is important to them. But you can see in their attitude andtheir professionalism that infant-toddlers are always their focus, and theywant them to grow up and be socially, emotionally, physically and academicallydeveloped well…[The ITQEP has] been amazing and invaluable, honestly, to meas the director and also to our staff.”

To continue supporting the operations of Early Years and crucial programs such as the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project, please donate today.