Substantial Portion of the Day

I have a school where a 3-year-old room and VPK room are only open for a specific time. The other rooms are primarily open from 8:30-2:40. Before care is offered in another room and those kids who stay for after care combine.

What is the best way to calculate substantial portion of the day for the rooms that are only open for specific time? How should this be worded on the schedule so that it is clear for the verifiers?

Also, for the rooms that combine, what is the best way for the schedule to be written?

Staff Qualifications Questions & Answers

Staff Qualifications:

Question: 4 stars reads:
25% of lead teachers have associates degree or higher OR
60 credits with 18 credits in ECE. So, does that mean associates degree can be out of field and no ECE credits are needed?

Answer: No, this has been re-worded to make it clearer. It is an Associates degree or 60 college credits, including at least 18 credits in ECE.

Question:Level three says all lead teachers need Staff Credential
Level four says 25% have associates degrees
Let's say at one of my schools, I have one lead teacher who doesn't have a Staff Credential, but more than 25% have associates degrees. What level would we score? We have 6 classes - 4 have degrees (2 are definitely ECE, one is elem. ed, the other is something else)..but, the only (hence, lead) teacher in our young infant room (4 max) does not have staff credential. Now, the lead teacher in our big infant room is a degreed teacher and IS responsible for the younger room as well, whenever it is in use (we don't always have it open). So, can we say she is lead for both rooms??

Answer: The requirements at each level must be met in order to move up, so if there is one lead teacher who doesn't have a staff credential, the score for part A of Professional Qualifications would be a 2 no matter how many other lead teachers have degrees. The lead teacher is the person in charge of each classroom when it is open. The infant room teacher with the degree can only be considered the lead in one room at a time.

Question: What constitutes a professional development plan....is it an individual plan for each staff member or a program-wide plan?

Answer: It is an individual plan for each teacher that sets the expectation that they will continue their formal education. So a teacher with a staff credential would be encouraged to work toward an Associates degree, etc.

Curricula approved by the Early Learning Coalition of Broward County

These curricula are currently listed as approved for ages 0-5 by the Broward County ELC:

• Beyond Centers and Circle Time Series
• Creative Curriculum®
• High/Scope®
• La Petite Academy – Journey
• Montessori
• Building Language for Literacy®
• DLM Early Childhood Express®
• Doors to Discovery®
• Funshine Express™
• High Reach Learning
• LifeSmart ™ - Tutor Time
• Opening the World of Learning™
• Preschool First
• WEE Learn

These have been approved for Pre-K only:

• High Reach® Passports for Pre-K
• Houghton Mifflin Pre-K
• InvestiGator Club®
• Let's Begin with the Letter People® for Pre-K

Question about "accessible materials"

Question:
Good Morning Anita,
Jennifer asked me to e-mail you with my question on the discovery area.
We have an unique school. Our classrooms are very small and so we have our centers set up in an open area called the bay in front of the classrooms. My question is, do we need to have live items in both areas, the room and the bay, in order for them to be counted?

Answer:
Thanks for your question. I hope you don’t mind if I post it on the blog for others to see.
There are two issues at play with this. One is access to and the opportunity to interact with living things. The other is having materials available for a “substantial portion of the day”.

In the ITERS-R, item 22 Nature/Science, indicator 5.2 states: “Some daily experiences with living plants or animals indoors (Ex. Plant in the room to look at,; staff point out trees, flowers, or birds from a window; children visit an aquarium).” (in the school). The key here is that it is evident that there is some interaction with nature while indoors, and it must take place during the observation to receive credit. It should be obvious that it is a daily occurrence. It can be in the classroom, your bay area, or anywhere inside your building.

In the ECERS-R, item 25 Nature/Science there are two things to consider. One is that “living things” are one of the nature/science categories referred to in the scales (see p. 51 in the ECERS-R scale). To receive credit in 3.1, items from 2 categories must be accessible. In 3.2 they must be accessible to the children for at least one hour during the day. To receive credit for 5.1 there must be 3-5 examples from three categories accessible, and 5.2 requires that they be accessible for at least 1/3 of the hours your program is open.

To score this item, the assessor will observe where the items are located and will record the times that the items in all locations are accessible to children, meaning that the children are free to use the items and can access them on their own. Therefore if the time that the children use the centers in the bay area is restricted, it may not be possible for the children to have long enough access to receive credit. You’ll need to assess the daily schedule and how that area is used. Also, the assessor will interview the teacher at the end of the observation. The teacher will have the opportunity to state other times during the day that these materials are accessible. Also, the posted schedule should list all the times during the day that materials are freely accessible.

I know this was a long answer, I hope it helps.