Investing in Early Educators Program and Steps to Excellence Project (STEP)

TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT
FAMILY CHILD CARE ENVIRONMENT RATING SCALE COHORT 3

The Office of Child Care, on behalf of the County of Los Angeles Policy Roundtable for Child Care, Child Care Planning Committee and the UCLA Center for Improving Child Care Quality (CICCQ), is delighted to announce the addition of a Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale (FCCERS) Training Cohort for family child care providers.  The training encompasses an overview of the rating scale and how to use it to evaluate your program.  This is a beginning level training designed for providers with limited experience in using the measure, scoring the observations, and using the results to plan for staff development and other program improvement activities.

The training is scheduled in three sessions over one and a half days as follows:

Session 1:  Saturday, May 31, 2008 • 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Sessions 2 and 3:  Saturday, June 14, 2008 • 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Participants must commit to attending both days of training and conduct a practice review at your family child care home using the FCCERS.  Ideally, practice reviews take approximately four hours of uninterrupted time during which you are not responsible for children and are usually best conducted beginning in the morning before families arrive.

If you are interested in participating in the training cohort, complete and return the Participant Application Form.  Because of the comprehensiveness of the training, each cohort is limited to 20 people – one (1) staff member per family child care home.  Of those providers selected to participate, highest priority will be given to those with no prior training experience with the Office of Child Care who are participating in STEP, participate in a California Department of Education/Child Development Division (CDE/CDD)-contracted Family Child Care Home Education Network, and/or in a family child care home in which the majority (51% or more) of the children enrolled receive a subsidy from the CDE/CDD.  All others will be enrolled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Send your application materials and supporting documents by facsimile or mail to:

Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale Training Cohort 3
Office of Child Care, SIB/CEO
County of Los Angeles
222 South Hill Street, 5th Floor
Los Angeles, California 90012
Facsimile:  (213) 217-5106

Participation in the training will be confirmed with the training location approximately one week prior to the first session of the training.