Early Education and Care (EEC) The March 2020 shutdown of the Commonwealth required an innovative response by VOC in its early education programs to assure children and families continued to be engaged in learning. Staff, teachers and Home Educators started Zoom classrooms for remote learning, weekly phone calls to families, Facebook activity posts, (including Facebook Live story times) and delivered educational packets to families. July brought the reopening of early education centers along with many restrictions. VOC classrooms operated at reduced capacity, reduced hours, with new screening and safety protocols, social distancing in the classroom and staffing changes. What many would have seen as challenges, VOC’s Early Ed programs saw as opportunities. VOC launched virtual professional development days, virtual educator support groups, virtual intakes and enrollment tours for families, wave parades celebrating students, virtual family engagement, food and diaper deliveries, Zoom staff meetings and virtual clinical playgroups.
Early Ed had a Wave Parade for children and families. The Early Ed staff made posters, dressed up, played music and made this an exciting event for children to see their teachers during the closure.
Zoom staff meetings
Enrollment Specialists and Social Workers have taken on parent liaison roles during the pandemic, going the extra mile to assist parents with submitting documentation and at times delivering important paperwork to their homes or places of work. Without this added assistance during the pandemic, many parents could have lost their funding. The Early Ed department also focused on professional development and a new partnership with the Life is Good (LIG) Playmakers - a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids heal from the devastating impacts of trauma - which has provided virtual training for over 200 Early Ed staff and Home Educators throughout the pandemic. Our childcare programs, teachers, directors, staff and Home Educators showed resilience, strength and fortitude in the ever-changing policies, procedures and guidelines all while working directly on the front lines.
Real People.
Real Help.
Real Impact.
1,252 children thrived in our state-of-the-art early education centers. This includes centers and family-based care, virtual classrooms, and Preschool Expansion Grant programming. 237 early education staff have received ongoing intensive
trauma-informed therapeutic play training.
The Early Ed department purchased 13 new vans in 2020! 4
Parent and child leaving the Center for the day
