Educare Washington DC

Early head start and head start at Educare DC schools:educare runs an early head start (infant-toddler) and head start (pre-kindergarten) program for children ranging in age from 6 weeks to 5 years across two Educare DC school sites. Our infant-toddler program, for children ages 6 weeks to 3 years, is designed to provide children with high-quality interactions and caring attention from their teachers. The pre-kindergarten program uses a play-based curriculum to ensure the 3-, 4- and 5-year-old students are ready to learn and succeed in kindergarten and beyond. (continued on sch o)teachers design learning units based on the children's interests. The philosophy behind this curriculum, which is aligned with the district of columbia early learning standards for pre-kindergarten and the district of columbia common core early learning standards, is that young children learn best by doing; positive interactions and relationships with adults are critical foundations for successful learning; social-emotional skills are significant factors in school success; the physical environment affects the quality of learning interactions; and teacher-family partnerships support development and learning. To accomplish these objectives, the curriculum addresses four areas of development: social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. In each area, there is an emphasis on age-appropriate assessments, weekly lesson planning, program planning, teacher supervision, and family engagement. Three teachers work with 16-20 children, allowing each child to receive individualized attention and instruction. The programs are funded in part by the early head start and head start federal programs. Educare DC's flagship early learning center is located in DC's ward 7 neighborhood of parkside-kenilworth. We are fortunate to be housed in a state-of-the-art building that was custom built for our work, including our role as a training and demonstration site. To that end, our 32,000 square foot facility was designed with windows into every classroom and separate observation rooms that allow for observation with minimal classroom disruption. Educare DC's parkside location comprises 14 classrooms, each sharing a bathroom with its neighbor and each with direct access to outdoor play space. Our comprehensive services manager has a small health suite and there is also a dedicated lactation room for nursing parents and staff. Our school has two dedicated training rooms that can be combined into one large room. This space is most often utilized for professional development (internal and external) and community meetings. Our school also has two indoor gross motor rooms for active play in inclement weather, a parent resource area equipped with computers and meeting space, and an inner courtyard which hosts our school vegetable garden and butterfly habitat.our program expanded in 2021 as we opened a second school site, established a new subrecipient partnership and launched a prenatal program. This expanded programming allows Educare DC to serve an additional 120 young children. Our second site is co-located at idea public charter school, a high school in DC's ward 7. Educare DC's idea location comprises 10 classrooms with the capacity to for up to 80 children and serves exclusively infants and toddlers. The space was designed and renovated with many of the same features as our flagship location (including direct access to outdoor play spaces, child-sized fixtures, and classroom observation rooms) and it provides the same high-quality, research-based early learning that Educare DC is known for. The program serves a dual purpose as hands-on training facility for high school students enrolled in idea's child development associate (cda) program. By ensuring the next generation of early educators are skilled, knowledgeable, well-prepared, we hope to strengthen the early care and education sector more broadly.

Wrap around services:family engagement:family engagement is a critical component of Educare DC's programming. Educare DC's family engagement team works with families to build mutually respectful, goal-oriented relationships that support family wellbeing. This approach is based on the principle that our school can only address a child's needs within the context of the entire family. This two-generation approach enables parents to see and believe in themselves as community leaders, skilled advocates, and the primary drivers of their children's education at Educare DC and beyond. (continued on sch o)to achieve this goal, our faculty and staff build supportive relationships through intensive, frequent, and intentional interactions with parents/families. We also collaborate with parents as partners in the education of their children and support them in developing strong, nurturing relationships with their children. This support includes increasing parents' knowledge of healthy parent-child relationships, child development, and expectations for school readiness. Educare DC also shares data on children's progress to support further learning both at school and at home. To further support parents as they nurture their children's potential and strive toward their own personal goals, the school offers access to computers, resources for families experiencing homelessness, and counseling and support for personal or domestic crises. These programs and resources are vital to ensuring that parents have the help they need to create a safe and stable environment for their children and themselves.our family engagement strategy also involves the governance structure of Educare DC. Parents play an active role both through parent membership on the board of directors and our parent policy council, which plays a large role in school governance. The parent policy council approves the school's budget, program/calendar changes, and staff hiring decisions. By building parent/family skills and competencies, Educare DC not only promotes learning at home, but helps parents become effective advocates for their children at Educare DC and strengthens their skills to be contributing citizens and workers in the community.comprehensive services:comprehensive health and wellness services are a critical component of our work. Children must be healthy to learn and develop well and, in turn, a quality early learning experience results in better long-term health. Educare DC offers vital health and wellness support to our children and families including: developmental screenings, assistance enrolling in medicaid and wic, management of chronic conditions, on-site therapeutic services, on-site hearing, vision, and dental screenings, coordination with medical providers for immunizations and well-baby checks, and referrals to specialists when needed. The comprehensive health philosophy is infused through Educare's program with daily health checks of each child conducted by classroom teachers, three healthy meals each day designed in consultation with a nutrition specialist, and a school garden as a source of food and learning for children and families.in addition, our comprehensive services team uses formal evaluations and ongoing teacher andparent observations to identify children who may have a developmental delay or would benefit from individualized health or mental/behavioral health support. If a child appears to have a developmental delay, our team conducts additional assessments and may refer the child to DC healthy start or strong start early intervention programs. Any plans, supports, or interventions put in place are highly tailored to that child's specific needs. Given the interdisciplinary nature of our program, needs that are identified for each child are holistically supported through our teaching practices and work by our family engagement team, including through the annual family goal-setting process.prenatal program:in 2021, Educare DC launched our prenatal program, moms2be. Serving up to 24 expectant mothers each year, moms2be empowers mothers through the continuum of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting an infant. Our goal is to support mothers and their babies by ensuring they have access to quality healthcare, parenting and birthing classes, support and coaching from experts, and connection with other mothers. Led by a dedicated staff, the program offers: a sequenced curriculum around pregnancy, infant developmental science, and parenting; one-on-one meetings with a perinatal coordinator to set up personal goals; assistance accessing to prenatal care, including additional supports for access as pre- and postnatal screeners; possibility for enrollment and transition of infant (6 weeks or older) to an early head start program at Educare DC or one of our childcare partner programs.

Early head start (ehs) partnerships:in 2020, Educare DC received a new grant from the office of head start, which allowed us to expand our program to serve an additional 120 children at a new, second site and with an additional partner, for a total of 424 children, prenatal to age five, and their families. This includes 160 children at our flagship center in parkside-kenilworth, and 144 children at our early head start-child care partnerships in wards 7 and 8. (continued on sch o)early head start-child care partnership (ccp): Educare DC's ccp program is funded through a five-year federal grant from the administration for children and families (acf) within the u. s. department of health and human services. Through this program, Educare DC partners with other child care programs in d.c.'s wards 7 and 8 to serve 144 infants and toddlers and their families. The program enables Educare to partner with child care providers to implement early head start's high-quality standards in classrooms and to add new services including health, oral health, nutrition, mental health, and supports for children with special needs. The program also provides family engagement services, designed to help low-income families build positive relationships with their children and achieve self-sufficiency, as well as facility enhancements.early head start subrecipient: as a part of Educare DC's head start grant, we are partnering with national children's center (ncc) to operate two infant-toddler classrooms at their center, serving up to 16 children. Ncc is one of the larger early learning providers in DC's ward 8 and is partnering with Educare DC to operate a comprehensive child care program.

Advocacy:educare DC works to leverage our strength as a demonstration site, early learning practitioner, and research organization. By design, Educare DC is uniquely positioned at this intersection of practice, policy, and research. We feel it is our responsibility as a leader in the field to advocate for better policy and identify areas where improvements can be made for better funding and better quality for children.research:educare DC extensively utilizes data to track program progress and outcomes to ensure that our program is achieving its intended results and reaching our annual quality goals. To support this work, Educare DC works with a local evaluation partner (lep), headed by dr. brenda jones harden of the university of Maryland. The lep team conducts a series of 12 assessments throughout the school year, collecting data to document child outcomes and classroom quality, which informs classroom practice, family engagement work, advocacy, and more. Our data is also shared with the frank porter graham child development institute at the university of north carolina at chapel hill (fpg), which services as the national evaluation partner (nep) for the 25-school Educare learning network (eln). Fpg is leading two studies involving the Educare model - the Educare national evaluation and the Educare follow-up study - and supports additional evaluations led by network partners. It also supports other research initiatives in the early learning space.external training:educare DC serves an essential practices of Educare training hub, delivering research-based training and practical instruction to other early learning providers in order to improve program practice and ultimately deliver stronger outcomes. Trainings currently offered include: high-quality teaching practices, data utilization, embedded professional development, and intensive family engagement.early educator fellowship:educare DC also operates the early educator fellowship program. This year-long, competitive entry program was created to fill a critical gap in workforce development not addressed through other work. The fellowship is designed to build the social and professional capital of early childhood educators. Core to the experience is authentic opportunities for fellows to exercise their voice as experts and advocates for early childhood and to their professional network and skills. The program primarily targets early educators who a) have completed or are enrolled in an associate's degree program, and who b) work in variety of provider settings serving mostly low- income children.