I’m not saying this is true of any one particular person or school or program, but I think we can all agree there’s been a time or two when the countdown was in the final seconds and an employee wound up attending a professional development session that maybe wasn’t quite the right fit for that person’s goals or plan. Anytime we associate a finite number to something, it becomes a task: Not Started, In Progress, Complete. Move on to the next requirement.

But what I think is interesting is that each state has its own set of licensing regulations and requirements and they are not apples to apples if you know what I mean. Some states require a very high number of continuing education (same thing) hours while other states, like Wisconsin, have reduced the number of hours required. It used to be 25 hours for full-time staff. The new requirement is a mere 15 hours.

Each administrator, center director, child care worker, school-age administrator, and
school-age director shall participate in at least 15 hours of continuing education annually.

For reference, I accessed the Wisconsin Department of Children and Family’s website today for the above link.

I can appreciate how nuanced it would be to truly evaluate the process between writing the professional development plan and the completion of correlating coursework but for some reason it also seems like it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.

This says you can count courses that you’re taking to assume a new position and if a Director or Assistant Director met with the Youngster coach, you can count that time as well, but only if you had direct contact with the coach. The Director can count the coursework in the Administrator Credential towards their hours.

It also kind of dances around the fact that the Wisconsin Registry is not directly affiliated with DCF licensing. Programs that do not participate in Youngstar then only meet the basic requirements above. Youngstar is presented as a standalone initiative, even though it is very much the same DCF umbrella. There has to be a way to marry these two forces, to strengthen the connection. How do we ensure the implementation of best practices without enforcing a cookie cutter approach. The Registry needs a makeover to rebrand itself because not only is The Registry a critical component of licensing with regards to teacher qualifications and program administrator, it’s also a professional development provider.

And it’s about to become even more popular because word on the street is that soon the books from Early Education Station and other correspondence courses will no longer be accepted as training sources for the two foundational courses required to be deemed lead-teacher qualified (Intro to Child Care and Skills and Strategies). If this is true, I think I love whoever made that choice and hear me out — I know how convenient it was to have someone rock through the workbook and *poof* be lead-teacher qualified. But let’s be honest, that’s almost the perfect example of something that seemed good as an alternative option, but we need to know that students are truly taking in this critical information in a meaningful way to provide high-quality care. I know it’s going to cause some grumbles, but I think this puts the focus back on the learning and development and finally moves us out of “hurry hurry” season. This feels like a potential move towards the professionalization of our field.

I am very aware of just a few of the challenges that this situation will bring to providers but I think if we approach this transition correctly, we can use it as an opportunity to evolve. Let’s keep that as our goal, and let’s problem-solve.

Access to trainings is already limited in certain areas of the state which is the population that is likely the hardest hit by any regulations not accepting the Early Education Station books. People don’t have time or coverage to attend trainings during the day but a large portion of our educators also do no have the bandwidth to attend a training in the evening either and I think this is one of those things we need to problem solve collectively and network together rather than working against each other.

https://earlyedstation.com today has a banner on the top of the screen reminding students that the deadline to finish self-study materials is December 20, 2024. Seems telling. I know some of you still have books out there; get them submitted by the deadline or you won’t get the credit! “The self study and online version of this courses will only be available for purchase until November 20, 2024.”