Lifting Up Lake County’s Youngest Learners

Early childhood professionals are sometimes described as “the workforce behind the workforce.” Their “essential worker” status became even more apparent during the pandemic, when COVID shuttered early childhood centers, creating a childcare crisis for working parents.

“The entire nation is underserved in this area,” says CLC Early Childhood Education Department Chair Dr. Diane Schael. “There are more jobs out there than early childhood professionals to fill them—and many individuals already in the workforce lack the credentials they need to qualify for these positions.”

To boost access to the educational opportunities students and current childcare professionals need to get credentialed, Schael participated in the Infant and Toddler Competency Project. She served on a group of eight faculty members from five Illinois colleges charged to develop 53 online modules leading to the Infant-Toddler Credential.

“We started writing the curriculum in June 2021 and completed the modules in December 2021,” Schael reports. “The Infant-Toddler curriculum is currently being piloted for a statewide rollout in 2023.”

CLC also partnered with North Chicago Community High School to launch an Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship program in Fall 2022. The partnership enabled graduates from the high school’s Class of 2022 to work as paid classroom monitors at the Green Bay Early Childhood Center while pursuing an associate degree in early childhood education at CLC. Tuition is covered by an anonymous donor. Philanthropy is also paving the way for a groundbreaking early childhood education program for Spanish-speaking students. A generous gift to CLC from John and Kathy

Schreiber is funding the development and 2023 rollout of a Spanish-language curriculum with a full-time bilingual instructor, as well as tuition, fees and expenses for the first three cohorts of students.

“By removing this language barrier, we are enabling Spanishspeaking members of the early childhood workforce to earn the credentials they need to provide culturally relevant care and education for Spanish-speaking Hispanic families,” says Schael. “We are grateful to John and Kathy Schreiber for investing in this new educational pathway, which will be a game-changer for Lake County’s growing Latinx community.”