Babies First NC

Babies First NC supports increased infant and toddler (Infants, 1’s & 2’s) classroom care quality by providing funding for increased quality, funding to increase teacher compensation, and providing ongoing intensive technical assistance, and monitoring progress toward increased quality and best practice. Babies First NC requires quality enhancements established as necessary by research findings, NC Pre-K and Early Head Start. Some of those quality enhancements include: reduced staff to child ratios, minimum required teacher education, scheduled teacher planning time, minimum teacher compensation, ongoing individual developmental assessment, and enrollment developmental screening and referral if indicated. In return, early care and education centers receive monthly incentives, ongoing technical support, ongoing monitoring and monthly stipends for each qualified classroom teacher teaching in the Babies First NC classrooms.