My Learning Regarding the International Child Development Field

As I reflect on what I have learned about the international child development field from my international contacts, organizations, and colleagues, I can't help but feel blessed to have the freedoms and basic supports that we have here in America, which many other countries are lacking.  Yes we see poverty, inequities in education, child abuse, neglectful parenting, and other atrocities that should never be a part of a child's life.  However, we are making tremendous strides in overcoming these issues and have an increasing amount of support that is becoming available to us (politically/financially) with the added knowledge and attention to professionalize the field of early childhood education.  Other countries, such as Romania, are struggling to provide basic human rights and dignities for their children.

Although strides are being made, we will continue to have consequences to all issues and trends in the early childhood field.  No one person can influence change in all areas of the many diverse needs in the early childhood field.  Yet our voices can be powerful and even the smallest of contributions matter.  Simply advocating for the right of children's play in our program matters.  Giving added love and attention to children matters.  Reaching out to and keeping parents involved in an early childhood program matters.  Using self-reflection and seeking opportunities to learn from others matters.  We can make a change, starting with our own scope of practice, and then expanding that scope to include others in our communities, state, country and globally.

We must recognize that the state of early childhood really is a global issue.  There are many organizations out there that provide amazing access to research and advocacy opportunities if we desire to seek them.  There are so many ways to become informed and involved in this field of study.  The more I have learned about early childhood issues in Romania and other countries, the more I want to increase my own skills and knowledge so I can become an effective advocate on behalf of the children. I have been inspired by their stories and by the amazing show of humanity in the early childhood advocates around the world.  We all have the potential to positively change the lives of these children forever.  What an amazing gift and opportunity!

Quality and Professionalism in the Early Childhood Field - Romania

This week we were asked to discuss quality and professionalism in the early childhood field with our international contacts.  I had the opportunity to pose the following questions to Theresa Creel, early childhood leader and professional advocate for children in Romania:

1. What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionalism are being discussed in Romania?

Poverty is the primary issue affecting quality. There is virtually no middle class, and while schools are available for kindergarten and up, many cannot afford school supplies in rural areas. Schools are not well maintained in a number of poorer areas. Preschool is not available in public schools. Nutrition has an impact for prenatal care and also childhood development, which includes physical as well as cognitive and emotional development. Other social problems, such as alcoholism and spousal abuse affect families and children. Although Romania has become part of the European Union, the economic problems in Western Europe are even worse in Eastern Europe. Romania still has orphanages and only last year begin to permit international adoptions after numerous years of not allowing them; the adoptions are only for relatives of the children. Children with disabilities are in more jeopardy as far as early childhood opportunities. One school in Oradea, Romania--Casa Minunanta, does provide excellent high quality early childhood education and care and successfully integrates children with disabilities into their program. However, this type of professionalism and program is extremely rare in Romania.

2. Do opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

This varies depending on location in Romania, rural versus major cities. While there are more opportunities for professional development in some of the larger cities, such as Timisoara, most areas have limited access to professional development. The exception is private schools, such as the German schools in Timisoara, Romania. These are tuition based and run by Western Europeans. Several private Christian schools also provide more professional development. One of the problems in Romania regarding its entire educational system is bribes. By that, I mean students pay extra on the side to get through the system successfully (this is also typical in the medical clinics and hospitals). Romania is very open to others coming in and assisting. More research is needed to assess the needs of the early childhood professionals in Romania.

3. What are some of your personal professional goals?

I want to focus on leadership development primarily to help other leaders "spread their own capabilities." I am particularly interested in helping those living in poverty through education.

4.  What are some of your professional hopes, dreams and challenges?

Education provides opportunity, even for the underprivileged. I think my biggest hope is to practically help people in need and to inspire others to do so as well. I dream of children having loving families and believe every child deserves the best. The challenge is that there are so many children who do not have loving families or even enough to eat or a quality education. While there are so many thousands, maybe continuing to help those I can and inspiring others to help will address some of the challenges.

My thoughts in response to Ms. Creel's answers are that even though there are many challenges facing the professionalism of the early childhood field in Romania, leaders like Ms. Creel are doing whatever they can to make an impact and to help influence positive changes there.  She is a very committed and knowledgeable professional that is sharing her passion and love for children in an amazing way.  I am very inspired by her advocacy and determination to make a difference.

Website Resources Regarding Equity and Excellence in Early Care and Education

I was able to gather some great information regarding the equity and excellence of early care and education this week from The Child Care Aware of America Website (formally NACCRRA, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral).  In fact, there was a new report posted on April 11, 2013, regarding how state laws are failing to maintain quality and protect children in child care centers across the nation based on information gathered from the organization’s We Can Do Better: 2013 Update. In this report, Dr. Lynette M. Fraga, Executive Director of Child Care Aware of America, states: “Families want their children to be safe in child care. They reasonably assume that a child care license means the state has approved some minimum level of protection for children and that the program will promote their healthy development. Our nationwide polling shows that parents also believe there is oversight by the state.  However, most state licensing requirements are weak and oversight is weaker.”

The report finds that while some states have improved their child care policies since Child Care Aware® of America’s last center update in 2011, state policies still vary widely in oversight and quality guidelines. For example, only 13 states require comprehensive background checks. Nine states do not require any type of inspection at least once a year. California inspects child care centers once every five years.  Overall, the ten top-scoring states earned a “C” grading, twenty-one states earned a “D” and the remaining states earned a failing grade.

The training requirements and education of early childhood teachers also varies widely across the nation.  As Fraga illustrates: “The key to quality child care is a strong child care workforce.  The most concerning part of weak training requirements is that in so many states, the minimum education level required of staff is low. This makes training critical to ensure the safety and well-being of children."  However, the report showed only 16 states addressed each of 10 basic health requirements and 10 basic safety requirements recommended by pediatric experts and only 21 states require training in child development. 

Dr. Fraga argues, “Quality programs make a real difference for children.  However, it’s hard to have a quality program with little training for staff and infrequent oversight.  The result is what we have today: a large gap between what parents reasonably assume and expect, and the reality of state policies.”

The recommendations that Child Care Aware of America make to Congress to strengthen the Child Care and Development Block Grant (part of the $10 billion in federal funds spend on child care every year) are:

* Require background checks based on fingerprints and a check of the child abuse registry and sex offender registry for all child care providers paid to care for unrelated children.

* Require states to establish minimum health and safety requirements and enforce them through regular unannounced inspections of all licensed child care programs.

* Require states to post inspection findings on the internet so that parents can make informed choices.

* Require all child care workers to have at least 40 hours of initial training (including CPR, first-aid and other basic health and safety training in addition to child development) and complete 24 hours of annual training.

* Authorize the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to withhold funding from states that do not require minimum protections for children and that do not conduct regular unannounced inspections of child care settings.

* Require emergency plans so that children are safe during times of natural disaster or crises.

* Increase the quality set-aside under CCDBG to 12 percent, gradually increasing to 25 percent, on par with Head Start.

Child Care Aware of America April 11, 2013 Press Release: http://www.naccrra.org/news-room/press-releases/2013/4/report-state-child-care-laws-fail-to-protect-children

We Can Do Better: 2013 Update:  http://www.naccrra.org/node/3025

Encouraging Progress In Regards to Equity and Excellence in Romania

As I have learned from my Romanian child advocate contact, Theresa Creel, Romanian children have long faced equity issues of poverty, abandonment, discrimination and the lack of basic human rights (access to medical care, loving parental support, proper nutrition).  Romania continues to struggle in these areas, however, encouraging progress is being made to address the basic needs of Romanian children and to help ensure access for early education for all children.  Below are some examples of how organizations such as UNICEF and The World Bank have contributed to promoting child rights and early care and education in Romania:

“Children whose earliest years are blighted by hunger or disease or whose minds are not stimulated by appropriate interaction with adults and their environment pay for these early deficits throughout their lives - and so does society. Such children are far more likely than their more fortunate peers to do poorly in school, to drop out early, to be functionally illiterate, and to be only marginally employable in today's increasingly high-technology world. Collectively, these children who have been deprived in early life therefore affect labor productivity and national economic prosperity.” Armeane M. Choksi, The World Bank

1. Advocating for Children’s Rights:

According to the UNICEF website:

Romania has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been adopted by more than 190 countries. It lays out one set of legal rights for all children and young people, and recognizes that above anyone else it is parents who are the most important factors in a child’s upbringing and development. Secondly, Romania has pledged itself to the Millennium Development Goals, whose specific objectives include eliminating extreme poverty, improving maternal health, reducing the infant mortality rate by 40 per cent, reducing the mortality rate in children between 1-4 by 50 per cent, and eliminating measles, all between 2000 and 2015 (http://www.unicef.org/romania/media_11843.html)

2. Better Support for Parents through Early Childhood Education Training

Romania’s adoption of the National Parenting Education Program in Preschool Education in 2001 has impacted family knowledge, attitudes and practices related to early stimulation, positive disciplining, early care and parent-child interaction and protection. UNICEF supported the Foundation “Our Children” to provide training program for trainers in all counties; and to supervise the training program for kindergarten teachers, while monitoring the overall process for the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. More than 70,000 parents have been trained, in almost 4,000 kindergartens and 370 schools, and the program has been included in the National Strategy on Early Education (developed by Ministry of Education, Research and Youth also with UNICEF support). One area where progress has been made is preschool process for children from minority and disadvantaged groups. Special program for increasing access of Roma children to pre-schools were introduced by UNICEF in partnership with MoERY and in collaboration with NGOs and later expanded by a Phare-funded project. Training
materials for teachers have also been developed for an integrated approach to ECD in line with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Children and the Millennium Development Goals, and, while a gap still remains between Roma enrolment and overall enrolment in pre-schools, it is not as wide as it once was.

Furthermore, UNICEF launched an advocacy campaign promoting early childhood development with local governments in rural areas throughout Romania. The project, developed with Holt Romania under the slogan “The first three years in life – the most important years” saw conferences held for 162 rural communities, each ending with a symbolic signing of the Commitment for the Promotion of Early Education. Last year a parenting education caravan (the first of its kind in Romania) was added; “Parenting Education at Your Home” aimed to provide training and information materials on early education and development to the most needy parents in rural areas. Within the caravan 36 rural communities were out-reached and in each community a library on parenting and early education and development was set up, in partnership with the local government.

(http://www.unicef.org/romania/media_11843.html)

3. Advocating for Early Childhood Education for all Children – Changes in Policy

In June 2012, The Roma Education Fund, The World Bank, Open Society Foundations, and UNICEF joined the European Commission in its call on governments to ensure that all Romani and other poor and excluded children have access to quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services.  All Romanian Member States acknowledged education as a priority area next to employment in their national Roma integration strategies. Moreover, 14 Member States proposed measures to widen access to early childhood education and care.  The European Commission called on Member States to increase enrolment in early childhood education and care among the most urgent policy priorities in several Country Specific Recommendations, stressing the need to eliminate school segregation and misuse of special needs education, improve teacher education and school mediation and raise parents' awareness of the importance of education.

(http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/ECAEXT/0,,contentMDK:23210156~pagePK:146736~piPK:226340~theSitePK:258599,00.html?cid=3001_4)

4. Development of Early Learning Standards

Romania is in many ways ahead of the curve in understanding and coming to grips with the importance of early child development, and aiming to ensure its provision in sufficient quantity and quality. Romania made a major breakthrough in the region when it embarked and embraced Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS). UNICEF supported the training of national experts in ELDS formation and also supported the establishment of a multi-sector task force which provided expertise and feedback to a pool of national experts involved in the formulation of ELDS. (http://www.unicef.org/romania/media_11843.html)