Why Do Both Staff Members in
an Early Head Start Classroom with Eight Children Need to Be Teacher Qualified?
Response:
In every Early Head Start
classroom, the maximum group size is eight children. To meet the 4:1 child to
teacher ratio, the classroom is considered two clusters of four children. Since
each teacher is responsible for the direct care and well being of the children,
both staff members need to be teacher qualified.
Considerations:
-
With the reauthorization of Head
Start, Congress is requiring 50% of teachers nationwide to have at least an
associate degree by 2003. This has tremendous implications for Early Head
Start since the classes are manned by teachers versus assistants or aides.
-
Currently teacher qualifications
include CDA, AA, BA, or an equivalent degree. The Performance Standards
mandate that Infant/Toddler teachers are given a year, from the date of hire,
to receive the minimum of an Infant/Toddler CDA.
-
Some programs have worked with
community colleges in creating local CDA programs and/or Early Childhood
Education programs.
Performance Standards,
Title 45, Code of Federal Regulations:
-
1304.52(f) Early Head Start and Head
Start staff working with infants and toddlers must obtain a Child Development
Associate (CDA) credential for Infant and Toddler Caregivers or an equivalent
credential within one year of hire as a teacher of infants and toddlers.
-
1304.52(g)(4) Grantee and delegate
agencies must ensure that each teacher working exclusively with infants and
toddlers has responsibility for no more than four infants and toddlers and that
no more than eight infants and toddlers are placed in any one group.
Resources:
Head
Start Act as amended October 27, 1998
-
Sec. 648A (a) Classroom Teachers (2) Degree Requirements.
No later than September 30, 2003, at least 50 percent of all Head Start
teachers nationwide in center-based programs have an associate, baccalaureate
or advanced degree in early childhood education; or in a related field to
early childhood education, with experience in teaching preschool children.
Teacher Quality
Funds: Program Instruction [Log
No. ACYF-PI-HS-99-03 ]
on “Quality Improvement Funds to Increase the Number of Teacher with College
Degrees” issued 3/24/99.
HeadsUp
Reading: National Head Start Association
provides a credit-bearing course via the HeadsUp Network.
(1999)
Early
Head Start Program Strategies-Staff Development. Early
Head Start National Resource Center @ ZERO TO THREE: Washington DC.
The Tip Sheet is not a
regulatory document. Its intent is to provide a basis for dialogue,
clarification, and problem solving among the Head Start Bureau, Regional
Offices, T & TA consultants, and grantees.
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