Educare Centers provide full-day, full-year, high-quality early education and care and family support to 150-200 of their community's children, from prenatal to 5 years, who are at risk of school failure. Educare centers include the following essential features
PARTNERSHIP
Educare Centers develop strong community public-private partnerships that draw upon all available resources (school districts, child care funding, Head Start, Early Head Start, private funders, and others) to provide high quality, comprehensive services for young children and their families. Educare Centers also serve as a platform to educate about the importance of investing in early care and education, to leverage public and private investment in early childhood, to raise standards of quality, and to push for policy and systems change over time.
PLACE
Educare Centers create a recognizable place dedicated to birth to 5 early care and education that sends a firm message about the importance of investing in early childhood, allocating 50% of the space to services for infants and toddlers to emphasize the importance of starting intervention efforts very early.
PROGRAM
Educare Center programming includes 11 core components, including using research-based strategies, providing services that begin before birth and continue through age 5, emphasizing prenatal services, implementing a balanced curriculum, emphasizing language and literacy development, maintaining high staff-child ratios, implementing reflective supervision, providing continuity of care, using an interdisciplinary approach, offering on-site family support, and incorporating visual and performing arts into the program.
PEOPLE
To produce and sustain high quality services, Educare Centers cultivate strong leadership; maintain highly qualified staff at all levels and across disciplines; create staffing structures that foster interdisciplinary approaches; and provide a variety of training and professional development opportunities to help staff improve skills and move up the career ladder.
