Programs/Initiatives to Enhance the Quality
of Child Care in Mississippi

Allies for Quality Care Program

This DECCD funded program will serve eligible, randomly selected child care centers located in Hinds and Rankin counties (year one). The focus of this effort is to address the programmatic needs of child care centers through evaluation and intense on-site technical assistance. This program will provide direct assistance to participating centers in an effort to(1) improve the learning environment in each classroom through increased ITERS and ECERS scores, (2) improve the nutritional quality of food provided to children, and (3) Develop an operating budget for the program and identify cost saving opportunities.

Child Care Development Associate (CDA) Credential

This DECCD funded training program provides training and support to child care workers in licensed child care settings statewide so they may obtain the Child Development Associate Credential (CDA) through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for Professional Recognition. The CDA is a nationally recognized credential which documents an individual's training to provide quality child care services. Students may receive assistance for the cost of training, applications and assessments. Students are training to work with parents and other adults to nurture children's physical, social, emotional and intellectual growth in a child development framework.

Child Care Licensure

DECCD provides CCDF funds to the MSDH Child Care Licensure Branch to assist in activities associated with the administration of child care licensure within the state.

Child Care Partnership Grant Program

This DECCD funded program provides services for families seeking emergency and/or protective services assistance.

Child Care Professional Development Conferences

This DECCD funded project supports professional development conferences for child care providers and administrators. This program is implemented through the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University. This conference series is offered at various locations around the state, and is free to all child care providers. A report from the first conference can be found by clicking here.

DECCD Director's Credentialing Program

This DECCD funded program operated by the Mississippi State University Extension Service provides child care center directors and staff 120 hours of module training. The training is designed to evaluate the knowledge and a wide range of skills of child care professionals for successful completion of the Child Care Management Best Practices. It further supports quality throughout Mississippi's child care system with a professional development that offers quality age-appropriate developmental activities in child care settings. This initiative promotes the development of language, literacy, pre-reading, and numeracy skills of children.

DECCD Training Videos

The DECCD Lending Library provides information on ways to improve the quality of child care through the distribution of publications and a video lending library with more than 200 topics to be checked out by child care staff for professional development.

Friends of Children of Mississippi, INC &

This DECCD funded program provides onsite childcare at the WIN Job Center in Canton, Mississippi to those individuals utilizing the available services of the WIN Job Center.

Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral Network

This DECCD funded service operated by the MSU Extension Service provides information for parents and caregivers in a variety of settings. This initiative offers an array of resource and referral services for childcare providers and parents across the state. For more information go to MSCCR&R also provides training for the three and four-year-old Mississippi Early Learning Guidelines (ELG) in addition to providing training in other appropriate curriculum topics, administration issues and business issues relating to child care. This initiative offers face-to-face training and distance-training through a centralized location via satellite. The ELG training is an essential tool used to prepare Mississippi's youth for "Ready To Learn."

Mississippi Early Learning Guidelines

This project, funded in part by DECCD, promotes the pre-kindergarten standards for use by early childhood centers in Mississippi. These guidelines help teachers ensure that all children are prepared for success in kindergarten.

Nurturing Homes

This DECCD funded program operated by the MSU Extension Service provides educational training and technical assistance to unlicensed in-home and family daycare childcare providers that offer full-day, full-year child care services to eligible families. This initiative is a statewide effort to improve the quality of care being provided within "In-Home" child care settings. The quality training and evaluation activities delivered through this initiative will have a measurable impact on the improvement/enhancement of quality care.

Partners for Quality Child Care

This DECCD funded program operated by the MSU Early Childhood Institute provides quality technical assistance and assessments to caregivers in licensed child care settings throughout the state that identifies the high level of quality child care through the use of nationally recognized environmental rating scales. The Infant/Toddler Environmental Rating Scales (ITERS) and the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scales (ECERS) are used to assess the development and enhancement of licensed facilities.

Project PREPARE

This DECCD funded program operated by the University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies provides an evaluation-based training and technical assistance initiative for licensed child care centers on the use of best practices to serve all children, including those with high risk factors related to disabilities, chronic health impairments, and special needs due to environmental factors.

Using the Early Learning Guidelines: A Complete Curriculum for 3 Year Olds

This DECCD funded curriculum was developed to assist early childhood teachers of 3 year old children in utilizing the Mississippi Early Learning Guidelines. See link above for the complete curriculum.

Using the Early Learning Guidelines: A Complete Curriculum for 4 Year Olds

This DECCD funded curriculum was developed to assist early childhood teachers of 3 year old children in utilizing the Mississippi Early Learning Guidelines.