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

A baby sleeping next to a stuffed bear

Both Kellie Brower, director of The Goddard School of Chapel Hill for two years, and Valerie Morris, owner and director of Beginning Visions Child Development Center & School in Alamance County for 20 years, had to recently recertify their centers. Both turned to the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project (ITQEP) for help.

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

What is the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project?

In 2004, the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education, in collaboration with the NC Resources and Referral Council, established the statewide Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project (ITQEP). Operated by Child Care Services Association (CCSA), the NC ITQEP supports the development of higher quality infant and toddler classrooms in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties by providing specially trained infant-toddler specialists across the state for coaching, mentoring and consultation to teachers and directors of early care and education centers.

How Does 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 and provided suggestions to get us over the hump…Honestly, they are my first point of contact whenever I have any questions. They have been seriously amazing. Always get back to me quickly, it never takes them long at all. They always seem to be available and happy to help, so it’s been really great.”

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

“Honestly, I would say them helping us with the 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 means the world to me. It’s worth it to have them come in and be an outsider to look in, you know, to see what they see, because sometimes I’ll go into a classroom 15 times and I won’t see the things that they see, because that is something that I’m looking at every day.”

“I want to make sure we’re doing the right thing 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 sometimes I have to get outside help to come in and remind me of things to keep me on top of the game.”

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

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

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

Knowing the reasons why, and not only how, are just as important for teachers when applying new lessons and suggestions from infant-toddler specialists in the classroom. “We had a question about an infant diaper 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 doing it. It’s just easier to apply in the classroom if I also have reasons why.”

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

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

“[ITQEP Specialists also] helped us redo the schedule to make the teachers’ schedule run smoother, so they wouldn’t have to do so much hand washing,” Valerie said. “Let’s go outside, come straight in and wash 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. It saves us some time.”

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

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

“[ITQEP specialists] genuinely have the best interest of the infants and toddlers at heart,” Kellie said. “There’s never a question of what is important to them. But you can see in their attitude and their professionalism that infant-toddlers are always their focus, and they want them to grow up and be socially, emotionally, physically and academically developed well…[The ITQEP has] been amazing and invaluable, honestly, to me as the director and also to our staff.”

To continue supporting the operations of Child Care Services Association and crucial programs such as the Infant-Toddler Quality Enhancement Project, please donate today.


Sources:

[1] The North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education. https://ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov/Services/Licensing/Star-Rated-License/star-rated-license

[2] Smart Start of Forsyth County. https://smartstart-fc.org/star-rating-system-your-child/