Blog

Information and inspiration for early care and education professionals.

Caring for Yourself, So You Can Care for Others

How are you feeling this very minute? Take a moment to pause and assess your mind and heart. What is the first word that comes into your thoughts? Was it good, fine, happy or content? Or was it exhausted, worried,[...]
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Child Care Health Consultants help your program achieve healthier environments for children

It’s not easy maintaining a healthy environment for young children. As a child care director or owner, you may need additional support to achieve best health and safety practices in your program. As a Quality First participant, you have access[...]
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Making the most of your informal assessment feedback

The Quality First Assessment team provides informal assessment to offer objective feedback using the updated, third editions of the Environment Rating Scales (ERS) tools. This opportunity is available to licensed child care providers, including family child care and center-based programs[...]
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Boost Your Program’s Improvement Efforts with an Informal Assessment

A Quality First assessment provides feedback to recognize your program’s unique strengths and to help you set goals for quality improvements using objective, research-based tools. An informal assessment is offered to all regulated early care and education providers in Arizona.[...]
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How will you respond? Preparing for a positive case at your program

As an early education professional in today’s environment, you spend significant time and effort on preventing the spread of germs in your environment. As important as it is to take action to prevent the spread of viruses such as COVID-19[...]
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Caring for Infants and Toddlers During COVID and Beyond

As you work to provide safe and healthy early learning environments for young children, including infants and toddlers, you may find yourself wondering how to adapt for the youngest children in your care. Certain COVID safety recommendations may not apply[...]
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How to provide physical distancing in the early education setting

When planning to provide care for young children during COVID-19, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to find reliable advice. On a daily basis, you face critical decisions such as: how should you screen for an illness;[...]
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Supporting learning from a distance

Due to the onset of COVID-19, many early childhood education programs have shifted away from offering in-person activities to facilitating children’s learning from a distance, in the home setting. This change in services has created a multitude of difficulties and[...]
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Director’s network provides support during challenging times

Managing a center-based or home-based early childhood education program is a demanding job—and can feel isolating at times. Some of Arizona’s program directors have formed director’s networks to build support for themselves. These groups are comprised of early childhood program[...]
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