Note: This site is for reviewing legacy plan of work data from 2007-2011. If you are looking for the current plan of work interface, visit pow.nmsu.edu.

Child Care Provider Education (Lea County)

Plan Goal

Coordinate and deliver educational workshops for county child care providers throughout the year. The workshops will provide continuing education credits and increase the knowledge level for providers in collaboration with area and regional agencies.

Situation Statement

Child care providers in New Mexico need assistance in acquiring continuing education credits in order to keep their jobs and to insure the likelihood that they can provide quality care. Child care licensing regulations in New Mexico stipulate that providers need 6-24 hours of continuing education annually depending upon the type of center or family day care home in which they work (New Mexico Kids, 2006).

There is close to 500 residents employed in day care in Lea County. The majority of those employed, care for children, toddlers and infants in their home. However, there are many more in the county that are not licensed day care centers.

In addition, day care centers tend to have a high staff turnover, thus there is a need for continual staff training for new providers. There are a large number of child care providers who need continuing education but too few training opportunities exist, especially in a provider’s home town. Traveling to professional conferences which usually occur in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, or Santa Fe, imposes a hardship of time and money, on providers who live in other parts of the state.

Extension can help fill this educational gap, particularly in remote and rural areas like Lea County, by providing local educational workshops. Lea County Extension will deliver educational workshops in collaboration with Family Resource and Referral, Inc., and Children, Youth and Families. In order to meet New Mexico licensing regulations, workshops will be certified to be counted as continuing education units and each workshop session will meet the seven recognized competencies. The competency areas are 1) child growth, development, and learning; 2) health, safety, nutrition, and infection control; 3) family and community collaboration; 4) developmentally appropriate content; 5) learning environment and curriculum implementation; 6) assessment of children and programs; and 7) professionalism.

Continuing education for child care providers is not only required for continued employment, but it also increases the likelihood that child care workers will provide quality care for young children. Studies show that children in quality care are better adjusted emotionally and have higher level cognitive functioning than children who experience poor quality care.

Target Audience and Actions

In collabortion with local and regional agencies a one day workshop will be coordinated to provide care takers with five to six continuing credit hours. The workshop will be available to all child care givers in Lea County and surrounding counties. Presentations will be given by area and state specialists to speak on various topics related to children. The workshop will have a Spanish only tact.

Other workshops will be provided throughout the year as needed. These workshops will be delivered by the county home economist.

Short-Term Objectives

Seventy percent of the child care providers in Lea County will attend an annual workshop each year.

Thirty percent of the child care providers in Lea County will attend one time workshops throughout the year.

Eighty percent of the participants who attend the annual child caregivers workshop will increase their knowledge level of child development by 20%.

Ninety percent of those registering for classes will acquire the necessary continuing education hours to keep their employment as child care providers.

Medium-Term Objectives

Six weeks after attending workshops, 60% of providers will be using one of the techniques learned, with children in their care.

One month after attending workshops, 60% of providers will have kept their jobs as a result of earning continuing education credits.

Long-Term Objectives

Six months after attending workshops, 35% of the providers will be using two of the skills they learned to develop new activities to teach the children they care for.

One year after attending the workshops, 40% of the providers will return to workshops provided by the extension service for more education and continuing education units.

Thirty percent of day care centers will retain their employees, due to the education provided by the extension service.

Evaluation Plan

Pre/post knowledge tests will be used to determine level of knowledge gained or lost from educational workshops.

Surface mail or email surveys of participants or center administrators will be used 6 weeks and 6 months after educational programs to determine the programs and skills being used or developed for use with the children in their care.

Each year the mailing list will be purged to determine the amount of child care providers still employeed in the county.