Child Care State Capacity Building Center

The Child Care State Capacity Building Center (SCBC) works with State and Territory leaders and their partners to create innovative early childhood systems and programs that improve results for children and families. SCBC focuses on enhancing the effectiveness of programs implemented under the Child Care and Development Fund, improving the quality and supply of infant-toddler services, and advancing the development of early childhood systems. Guiding principles include the following:

Effective State-level technical assistance establishes credibility and expertise, builds partnerships, and develops systemic capacity from Child Care and Development Fund Administrators to child care providers.
Context matters. Effective capacity building requires understanding and respecting each organization's history, values, and vision.

Services are available through the SCBC's Infant/Toddler Specialist Network, Intensive Capacity Building Network, and State Systems Specialist Network.

Contact Us

Send your questions and requests to:

CapacityBuildingCenter@ecetta.info
877-296-2401

Highlighted Tools and Resources:

Template for Displaying Serious Injuries, Deaths, and Instances of Substantiated Child Abuse in Child Care describes the requirements for posting aggregate data and provides an example of how states and territories can display the aggregate number of serious injuries, deaths, and instances of substantiated abuse in child care on their consumer education websites to meet CCDF regulations.

Designing Websites That Are Accessible For All Families guide offers best practices, strategies, and examples for state and territory staff to consider as they work to ensure their consumer education websites are accessible to people with disabilities.

Best Practices for Consumer Education Websites: Translation guide offers best practices, strategies, and examples for states and territories to consider as they work to provide translated materials on their consumer education websites.

The OCC Systems Building Resource Guide is designed to provide an overview of key system-building issues to support Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) State Administrators (SAs) in pursuing system-building initiatives.

The Infant/Toddler Resource Guide offers a host of materials to support the development and implementation of policies and practices for high-quality care for infants and toddlers.

Building a Comprehensive State Policy Strategy to Prevent Expulsion from Early Learning Settings provides a review of expulsion research, discusses dimensions of expulsion, and provides the Expulsion Policy Strategy Tool—a practical tool designed to support states and territories in designing and implementing a multifaceted policy approach to developing a continuum of supports for programs, families, and children.

Emergency Preparedness plans help ensure child care programs and staff are prepared to react in a manner that protects the safety of children and staff when an emergency occurs. Emergency plans also establish mechanisms to help programs during the recovery phase and get businesses “up and running” as soon as possible, which promotes continuity of care and reduces the risks of clientele and income loss.

Office of Child Care Announcement:

Consumer Education Hot Topic Webinar Series and “Ask Me Anything” Webinars

The Child Care State Capacity Building Center (SCBC) is pleased to announce a series of webinars designed to help states and territories improve their consumer education websites. SCBC will partner with experts from our Website Development and User Experience Team, along with experts from the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment, National Center on Child Care Data and Reporting, National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, and National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement, to offer these webinars. Full session and registration information is available by clicking the link above.

Success Stories:

Michigan Establishes a Statewide Infant/Toddler Consultant Network

In 2014, Michigan recognized a need for an infant/toddler consultant network. In order to best meet the need, the state surveyed its infant/toddler providers to gather their thoughts on what supports would be the most valuable. As a result, in 2016, the statewide system of resource centers established an infant/toddler consultant network that included all 10 of the resource centers. Synergistically, the State Capacity Building Center (SCBC) Infant/Toddler Specialist Network (ITSN) was ready to pilot the Six Essential Practices of Relationship-Based Care training for trainers (TFT) in the fall of that same year. Michigan’s Infant/Toddler Consultants received this training and began to strategize how to incorporate it into their work.

In 2017, the resource centers, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education, Office of Great Start and Early Childhood Investment Corporation, began to pilot regional learning communities with programs and providers who served infants and toddlers. Building on participation in the state’s quality rating and improvement system, Great Start to Quality, this included:

Offering monthly group sessions
Mentoring onsite
Coaching and consultation on quality improvement
Providing professional development at focused meetings
Infusing all of their work with the Six Essential Practices of Relationship-Based Care

Over the following two years, the SCBC Infant/Toddler Specialists provided enhanced professional development opportunities and technical assistance to the Michigan Infant/Toddler Consultants, during which time their capacity to deliver this training, build reflective learning communities, and support responsive caregiving has excelled. Their commitment to continuous quality improvement is obvious in their scaffolded support structure of providers that is tailored to meet the needs of each learning community. In a parallel process, the consultants are part of their own learning community in which they have the opportunity to integrate reflective practice.

In 2018, a detailed transition plan was put into place for the first group of learning communities. Providers were given the opportunity to determine the supports they needed to become self-sustaining and form a support network, enhancing care for infant and toddlers in other programs as well. These providers’ star ratings moved from 1–2 stars to 3–4–5 stars, offering developmentally appropriate experiences and materials to the children in their care, as well as demonstrating relationship-based care practices and decreasing the amount of challenging behaviors. The Michigan Infant/Toddler Consultants continue to move this work forward with recruitment of their second group of regional infant/toddler learning communities and ongoing relationships with the first group. In February 2019, their work was highlighted at the Opening Minds Conference, a national conference for early childhood providers in Chicago, Illinois

Resource Search:

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Impacted by Opioid Misuse: Perspectives from an Infant and Toddler Lens

The third in the State Capacity Building Center Infant/Toddler Specialist Network's 2018 Hot Topic series, this webinar provides facts and resources to support responsive care to families struggling with challenges related to opioid abuse.

Integrating Evaluation into Infant/Toddler Initiatives

This second of the State Capacity Building Center Infant/Toddler Specialist Network's 2018 Hot Topic series explores considerations and methodologies related to the evaluation of state, territory, or tribal I/T initiatives.

Consumer Education: Building Effective Websites That Meet CCDF Requirements

This webinar was hosted by the Office of Child Care (OCC) and the Child Care State Capacity Building Center (SCBC) on April 26, 2018. During this webinar, participants had the opportunity to do the following:

Explore strategies for meeting Child Care and Development Fund website...

State-Tribal Coordination: Considerations and Strategies for Consultation and Collaboration

This webinar was hosted by the National Center on Tribal Early Childhood Development and the Child Care State Capacity Building Center in April 2018. The presentation focused on regional promising practices, opportunities, challenges, benefits, and lessons learned about the important...

Reflective Supervision: A Systems Approach

This first webinar of the State Capacity Building Center Infant/Toddler Specialist Network's 2018 Hot Topic series considers the impact of regular collaborative reflection among TA providers, supervisors, and early care and education professionals.

State and Territory Child Care Consumer Education Website: Self-Assessment Checklist

This checklist is designed to be utilized as a self-assessment tool by states and territories as they review their child care consumer education website for 1) alignment with CCDF consumer education website requirements; 2) recommendations within the preamble to the CCDF Final Rule; and 3)...

Infant–Early Childhood Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach

This webinar provides a national overview of States’ infant early childhood mental health (I-ECMH) systems-building efforts. The essential building blocks of an I-ECMH...

SCBC Infant/Toddler Specialist Network Hot Topic Webinars 2017

The Child Care State Capacity Building Center (SCBC) Infant/Toddler Specialist Network hosted a series of 1-hour Hot Topic Webinars on the 3rd Wednesday of each month beginning on July 19 and running through December 20, 2017. Resources are available for each session.

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The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC): Six Essential Practices for Quality Infant/Toddler Care

This final presentation in the six-part series of Hot Topics webinars explores six essential practices for high-quality infant/toddler care. Learn the basics of continuity of care, primary care, small groups, individualized care, inclusion, and cultural responsiveness. Resources for...

Supporting Families Experiencing Homelessness: Requirements and Resources

On October 19, 2017 the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE) hosted a webinar facilitated by colleagues from the National Center on Child Care Subsidy Innovation and Accountability and the Child Care State Capacity Building Center. During this interactive session,...

CCTAN - The Child Care Technical Assistance Network, a service of the Office of Child Care

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