Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC)
The University of Connecticut, A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service and it’s Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC) is working with OSEP, state Part C and Part B (619) programs, state early childhood systems, institutions of higher education, families, collaborators, partners and stakeholder groups to implement integrated early childhood CSPDs for those serving children with disabilities (age birth to five) and their families. The ECPC is value driven, evidenced based and outcome oriented.
Their website ( http://www.ecpcta.org ) is loaded with resources for students, educators and families. The site provides professional development opportunities including webinars and publications, and is a national resource for all disciplines serving infants and young children with disabilities.
The ECPC was funded to : (1) serve as a national resource on personnel standards, competencies, and recommended practices; (2) assist States in aligning personnel standards to national professional organization standards for personnel who serve children with disabilities and their families, integrating those standards with standards for EC personnel of all children, and linking those standards to state competencies and certification or licensure requirements; (3) assist state agencies and IHEs in partnering to align pre-service and in-service training for personnel serving children with disabilities and their families; and (4) assist States to develop an integrated and comprehensive system of personnel development for all who those serve children (aged birth to 5) with disabilities and their families.
To do this the program is using an implementation framework to facilitate the development, implementation, and evaluation of statewide early childhood CSPDs. As model components are developed and tested, the program will implement a systematic process to evaluate and scale up the multiple components of a CSPD in partner states including Deleware, Iowa, Kansas and Oregon. Visit this amazing resource at www.ecpcta.org !
