Inclusion Quality Activities for Infant and Toddler Care

Quality Activities for Infant & Toddler Care

The Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County has implemented targeted and specific efforts to enhance infant and toddler care.

The Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative was created and funded by the ELC during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The Initiative recruited and supported 11 early childhood programs (centers and Family Child Care Homes) in at-risk communities. The goals of the Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative focus on improving the quality of care in early childhood programs for children birth to 36 months and increasing families’ access to that care by increasing the number of infant/toddler slots. Since August 2019, the Iniative Pilot enrolled 186 new School Readiness infant/toddler children.

The Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative provides: • Coaching • Technical assistance • Professional development training • Improved learning environments through the purchase of age appropriate materials, equipment and furnishings, and • Stipends and training reimbursements for infant/toddler staff and program administrators.

Pre & Post Infant and Toddler CLASS results were used to determine the impact of the training and environmental improvements on the experiences the children had in the participating early childhood programs. Those programs that were able to have Post-CLASS observations revealed a significant increase in their Post-CLASS results, thus resulting in improved care for infants and toddlers. However, the impact of the Initiative could not be fully documented because the COVID-19 pandemic prevented some programs from receiving post-CLASS observations.

Because of the positive feedback in the community for the Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative, the Hillsborough County Housing & Urban Development approved a grant ($68,250.00) to fund the implementation of the Initiative in Unincorporated Hillsborough County (Oct. 12, 2019, through Sept. 30, 2020) which was named the Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative County Expansion. The grant provided for the recruitment of four additional early childhood programs, funded professional development/training specific to infant and toddler development, best practices, understanding Infant and Toddler CLASS and improved learning environments by purchasing age-appropriate materials, furnishings and equipment. Ultimately the Hillsborough Infant & Toddler Initiative County Expansion was able to provide all these infant and toddler enhancement services to a total of six early childhood programs. Enrollments began in December 2019, and 49 new School Readiness infant/toddlers were enrolled by June 30, 2020.