Education Services
Our Family Child Care Network has a team of Education Specialists that will provide our affiliated providers with educational services. The Education Team consists of individuals with formal schooling in Early Childhood Education or Infant/Toddler Studies and teaching experiences in early childhood. The Education Team will provide support and guidance in the planning and implementation of an evidence-based curriculum within a mixed-ages home-based setting, Let’s Play! A Relationship-Based Family Child Care Curriculum, teaching and instruction, responsive practices, family engagement, mental health, and additional areas related to all children’s care and instruction in the program.
Let’s Play! A Relationship Based Family Child Care Curriculum
Let’s Play! A Relationship Based Family Child Care Curriculum is a mixed-aged curriculum created by the Department of Education (DOE) and Bank Street to support children’s development through responsive caregiving and play-based learning in family child care programs. Let’s Play! is grounded in research and is aligned with Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five (ELOF), a research-based guide that outlines the skills, behaviors, and concepts that programs use as they engage children birth to age 5. Let’s Play! is suitable for children of all ages because it is open-ended and includes modifications for the inclusion of infants, toddlers, and all types of learners.
The Education Team is also responsible for
- Conducting two monthly coaching visits to affiliated providers’ programs to provide individualized education-related supports.
- Facilitating all Department of Education-required Professional Learning Sessions.
- Developing the content, and facilitating any additional Professional Learning Sessions as needed by affiliated providers.
Ages & Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3)
With the assistance from our Family Child Care Network Education Team, affiliated providers and families will complete the Ages Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3). The ASQ-3 is a developmental screening tool used by early childhood educators and health care professionals across the globe. It is a parent-completed questionnaire that unlocks critical knowledge about young children’s development. It pinpoints developmental progress in children between the ages of one month to 5 ½ years, unlocks critical knowledge to alleviate any concerns and catch delays for early intervention determination, and celebrates children’s milestones.
ASQ-3 screens 5 areas of children development: Communication, Gross Motors, Fine Motor, Cognitive, and Social and Emotional.
- Communication, the child’s ability to both understand and use language
- Saying his/her first words, naming parts of his/her body
- Gross Motor, the child’s ability to use large muscles
- Learn how to sit up with some support, and pull up to a stand holding onto furniture
- Fine Motor, the child’s ability to use small muscles
- Use their hands and fingers to pick up small objects, hold a spoon, turn pages in a book, or use a crayon to draw
- Cognitive, the child ability to learn and solve problems
- Learn to explore the environment with hands or eyes, learn how to do simple math problems
- Social and Emotional, the child’s ability to interact with others, help themselves, and self-control
- Smiling, waving bye-bye, or knowing to take turns in games at school
Teaching Strategies-Goal (TSG)
TSG is a classroom tool to document authentic assessments and support educators with their teaching practices. Such tools include but are not limited to curricular planning linked to assessment data and tools that allow educators to add documentation for authentic assessments and view them in report form and share with families.
Professional Learning
CPC’s Family Child Care Network (FCCN) Education Team facilitates eight Professional Learning (PL) Sessions every academic year. The PLs are offered in three languages: English, Spanish, and Chinese. Four of the eight PLs are content provided by DOE to be turnkeyed to affiliated providers. The CPC-FCCN Education Team develops the remaining four PLs, and it varies depending on the needs of the affiliated providers.
Coaching Visits
CPC-FCCN Education Team conducts two monthly coaching visits to affiliated providers’ programs. During the coaching visits, an Education Specialist would support affiliated providers by providing instructional support to help providers plan and implement Let’s Play! and ensure that affiliated providers’ practice are aligned with the Family Child Care Early Childhood Framework for Quality (FCC EFQ).
Technical Assistance
ECLW – FCC Network provides technical assistance to licensed/registered family and group family child care providers. Services include:
- Assisting providers in maintaining and promoting high-quality programs based on state and city agency regulations
- Providing family resource information for providers and the families they serve
- Providing high-quality training opportunities for child care providers and their staff