Resources

Challenging Behaviors Happen; Exclusion from Care & Learning Environments is Not the Answer by Micere Keels and Ana Vasan

Family engagement happens when educators and families participate in an interactive process of relationship-building that is mutual, respectful, and responsive to each family’s language and culture. School and child care programs can learn to create a welcoming environment, provide opportunities for families to form relationships with staff, engage in respectful, two-way communication with families, practice shared decision-making in planning services for children, and recognize and build family strengths and leadership. Read this action brief >>>

North Carolina’s history and increasingly diverse population calls for cultural competency training and professional development for child care, preschool, and K-3 caregivers and educators. Such training would strengthen their knowledge and skills for partnering with families, particularly families from overburdened and under-resourced communities. Read this action brief >>>

Ensure that social-emotional health and educational assessment tools can work for and be understood by many cultures and by people who speak different languages--are culturally and linguistically relevant. When culturally and linguistically relevant screening tools and assessments are used with young children and families in educational and mental health settings, they are more likely to be assessed correctly, receive the services they need, and feel positive about their experiences. Read this action brief >>>

Families are a critical resource in planning and implementing services for children. Involving them as equal partners and leaders in decision making from the beginning is an equity strategy that can result in systems that are responsive to the immediate and emerging needs of children and families. Read this action brief >>>

To strengthen families’ understanding of their own power, invest in family education about how to understand and navigate through child and family systems, and be a voice (advocate) for their own and their children’s needs at child care, in school and in health care settings.

Part 1 of 5-part toolkit series that provides guidance for strengthening NC’s early care and learning system in ways that are responsive to the state’s cultural diversity.

NCECF Pathways Issue Brief: Attendance