Early Childhood Belief Statement

Children have a right to a quality childhood which includes the following: 

•  Environments that:
  • respond to and promote individual differences and appreciation of individual capabilities
  • value differences across families, their backgrounds, and use these to support individual and community learning. 
  • foster development where children can explore and initiate their own learning
  • surrounds children with caring adults who foster self-confidence, appropriate decision-making, and, social and emotional growth and expression.  

Families are recognized as children's most important teacher and are supported by the following:

• Responsive, respectful, reciprocal partnerships with professionals.
• Ongoing opportunities to:
  • share about their children's learning and needs
  • actively engage in the development of learning opportunities for children
  • continue learning about child development and strategies to support health development and growth.
  • shape policies and development of early learnings programs/systems. 

Communities need a comprehensive system of early childhood services in which:

• The community:
  • shares a responsibility/role for all children's well being (i.e. social, emotional, physical, and intellectual)
  • believes that nurturing care, health and education of young children are inseparable, and, that assessment is inclusive of multiple sources of information. 
  • views everyone as  learners and teachers
• Partnerships are developed within the community for children to be successful
• Early learning systems/programs are ready to serve all children based on the child's development and unique background. 
• Services are nondiscriminatory, multicultural, multilingual, and have integrated curricula that fosters the development of all children, and supports all families. 

Public policy must be designed to:

• Recognize the early learning experiences are foundational for lifelong learning. 
• Develop a comprehensive early childhood system that address the whole child and value and support the needs of families.
• Allocate and provide funding/incentives for early learning partnerships, and, encourage the collective participation of all major stakeholders in the community
• Value early childhood professionals (including monetarily) on a basis comparable to other educators for their contributions
• Bridge career opportunities with a common early childhood certification system.