Early Childhood Specialist

The Early Childhood Specialist provides pre-licensing support to individuals seeking to open family or group child care programs, with an emphasis on recruitment and outreach to potential providers. The Specialist also supports the early childhood workforce through coaching and training efforts that promote quality improvement using evidence-based tools.

This is a full-time, 36-hour a week (Monday-Thursday) position. The wage range is $21.51 to $28.68 per hour.

• Pre-Licensing
  • Work with the Pre-Licensing Lead to:
    • Ensure compliance with the stated requirements with applicable funding sources and contractual agreements
    • Provides onsite technical assistance for potential family or group child care providers
    • Responds to requests from potential providers in a timely manner
    • Communicates with funder and DCF Licensing Specialists when appropriate
  • Be knowledgeable on DCF 202, DCF 250 and DCF 251 licensing requirements and related current issues
  • Maintain a working knowledge of required systems and databases utilized for regulation including, but not limited to the Child Care Provider Portal, the Wisconsin Registry, WISCCRS, and Salesforce
• Training
  • Become and/or remain current as an approved trainer in Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards (WMELS), Pyramid Model, and other evidenced based tools for training
    • Offer high-quality, evidence-based training opportunities to both regulated and unregulated providers in a variety of modalities and languages to meet needs.
    • Plan & present Child Care Foundation Trainings, CPR w/ AED, First Aid, and other courses required for potential child care providers striving to become a regulated child care provider.
• Technical Assistance for Stakeholders
  • Families
    • Connect and/or refer families to appropriate human service and community early childhood resources including but not limited to WI Shares, Birth to 3, services for children with disabilities and/or special health care needs, Family Resource Centers, and tribal agencies.
    • Make intentional efforts to engage with families experiencing gaps in access to needed care and services, including families with children with disabilities and/or children with special health care needs, families experiencing homelessness, and families in tribal nations, rural communities, communities of color, and communities preferring a language other than English.
  • Potential Child Care Providers
    • Conducts recruitment meetings/events for potential child care providers
    • Provide unregulated providers with education about the benefits of regulation and encourage them to become regulated. Offer guidance to unregulated and/or prospective providers who express interest in child care regulation and refer them to pre-licensing and/or certification services as appropriate.
    • Send appropriate materials to those requesting start-up information
    • Manage recruitment statistics
    • Represents the agency at media and visibility events appropriate to assigned program or project that support the overall efforts of the agency
    • Reach out to local high schools, technical colleges, or universities to promote CCP services & speak on the benefits of regulation
    • As assigned, contributes information or resources related to starting a child care business & best practices for distribution by email and/or through social media
    • Collects data and generates monthly, quarterly, or annual reports as required by funding sources and contractual agreements
    • Provides technical assistance to potential providers regarding child care business practices, strategies for building relationships with families, health and safety, child development, and other issues both in person, by telephone, or email
  • Regulated Child Care Providers
    • Provide comprehensive early care and education systems navigation and supports to providers by providing warm handoffs to services that can improve the quality of their program, including, but not limited to: services in support of high-quality early care and education (including Young Star), services in support of families (including Wisconsin Shares, Birth-to-3, Tribal Agencies, services for children with developmental disabilities and/or special health care needs), and services in…