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Child Care Inclusion Services and Coordination for Montana
Project Description:
The overall goal for "Statewide Inclusion Resources and Training" is
to strengthen Montana's child care system to more effectively support
the needs of children with disabilities and their families.
The project includes the following major components:
- Provide training and technical assistance to child care providers
through on-site visits, telephone consultation, formal training sessions,
the Internet, and self-study course activities.
- Support trainers in embedding inclusion in existing training
opportunities by providing technical assistance and training to trainers
including a fifteen-hour self-study course for child care providers.
- Collaborate with early intervention and related service providers
by providing technical assistance to service providers, developing training
materials for these professionals, and facilitating links to local CCR&R
agencies.
- Educate families, child care providers, and family support specialists
about how to include child care services in Individualized Family Service
Plans and Individualized Education Programs through training and technical
assistance activities and the development of a new training product on
this topic.
- Collaborate with Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to
insure that referral services are available to families of children with
disabilities throughout the state and that Best Beginnings scholarships
are readily available to eligible families.
- Collaborate with other service providers and resources who work
with children with disabilities and their families within Montana as
well as throughout the country.
- Provide consultation and training for child care providers to
help them implement - and sustain the spirit of - the Americans
with Disabilities Act.
- Bring innovation to Montana's child care system by monitoring national
trends, resources, and products.
- Collaborate with state level partners in the development and
implementation of policies and practices that promote inclusive child
care environments.
- Help promote increased access to inclusive child care resources.
- Provide information about the project, inclusive child care,
and related issues via statewide newsletters, the project's web
site, and dissemination of products.
- Track progress and document lessons learned to explore the need
for future support of inclusive child care efforts.
This project has been instrumental in implementing the Montana Special
Needs Subsidy which provides the actual cost of care for children with
disabilities in early childhood programs. Affiliations include UM Continuing
Ed, Montana Early Childhood Services Bureau (DPHHS), Montana CCR&R
Network, Montana Part C Child and Family Service Providers, and PLUK.
Embedding inclusion in Montana's child care system at all levels
and developing and monitoring special needs child care subsidy for low
income families are the major systems change components.
Contact Info:
Sandra L. Morris
Co - Director
sandra.morris@umontana.edu
406-243-6355
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