This session is designed to help Illinois early childhood leaders to get up to speed on the Program Administration Scale (PAS) before applying for ExceleRate Illinois. After completing this 4 hour training, providers will know how formal assessment can help identify strengths and target areas for improvement. You’ll spend time exploring what each item of the PAS measures, have the opportunity to practice scoring, and know how to prepare for an ExceleRate PAS assessment.

This session will be held at the Child Care Providers Coalition of Kansas Professional Development Event Advocating on behalf of young children and for the field of family child care is an important responsibility, yet oftentimes providers and practitioners don’t know where to start, are low on time, or feel uncertain about how to effectively communicate with local, state, and federal officials. This workshop offers family child care providers an introduction into “Advocacy 101”. Providers will explore advocacy examples, tools, and platforms that are easy to use and don’t require a lot of their time. Participants will also work on developing a strong, but concise “core” messages to use whenever they are advocating for the importance of family child care. In addition, the workshop offers suggestions for ways to get families and community members involved in advocating on behalf of family child care.