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Improving Child Care to Improve the Future
To working parents, good quality child care has long been an essential component of a constructive family environment – here in Southeast Texas just as it is all across the country. The quality of this child care is at the forefront of all parents’ minds as they leave their children in the hands of child care workers each day. And parents have every right to weigh it heavily. After all, research indicates that quality child care promotes cognitive, language, and social and emotional development.1
Workforce Solutions Southeast Texas, along with the Texas Workforce Commission, has embarked upon a quality improvement initiative designed to improve the child care system by awarding scholarships for professional development to local child care workers. The goal of the Quality Child Care and Development Initiative is to provide child care workers with training and technical assistance that will enhance the level of care for children with disabilities and children with special needs. In addition, the training will provide activities to help child care professionals better understand nutrition, first aid, and health and safety protocols; recognize communicable diseases; and apply principals of intervention for the purpose of child abuse detection and prevention. These workers will earn certificates of completion upon successfully fulfilling the requirements of the training programs. In addition, the Quality Child Care and Development Initiative will provide day care classrooms with instructional materials designed to enhance developmental appropriateness activities for infants and toddlers.
Thirty (30) scholarships have been awarded to local child care workers in Southeast Texas. Recipients will attend classes at Lamar University, with additional sessions and conferences at establishments such as Region 5 Education Service Center, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Child Care Licensing, and the Texas School Ready Program.
Workforce Solutions Southeast Texas, through its child care contractor, provides eligible parents and caretakers with assistance in paying for much-needed child care. If your employees or other family members are in need of child care assistance, please visit our website, www.setworks.org, click on the “Get Assistance” Child Care link, and read the “Four Steps to Receiving Subsidized Child Care” brochure. You can also speak directly with a child care specialist by calling 1-877-834-JOBS.
1 2009 by ZERO TO THREE “Seizing the Potential” |
