Early Care and Education Specialist

Early Care And Education Specialist

The Early Care and Education Specialist plays a vital role in strengthening the early childhood community by recruiting, supporting, and retaining family child care providers. This position builds meaningful partnerships with providers, child care centers, preschools, and families to expand access to high-quality early learning opportunities.

As a trusted resource, the Specialist researches, develops, and delivers engaging professional development opportunities that help early childhood professionals grow their skills and provide exceptional care. They also offer consultation and guidance to providers, educators, and parents on a variety of child care and early education topics, helping address unique challenges and promote positive outcomes for children.

This role is key to advancing the mission of the Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) Program by supporting membership growth, enhancing service quality, and connecting families with valuable early childhood resources. If you are passionate about empowering educators, building community partnerships, and making a lasting impact on young children and families, we encourage you to join our team.

Responsibilities include:

• Building relationships with early care and education providers in the community to help determine needs and recruit for services.
• Providing consultation and/or assistance to potential and new child care providers.
• Researching, developing, and presenting professional development events as per agency and contractual requirements for providers and parents.
• Developing and presenting one or more new trainings, as needed.
• Offering program management training to family child care providers and center-based directors.
• Communicating between educators and state licensing specialists when needed.
• Carrying out on-site technical assistance for providers regarding child development, daily program, business practice, learning environment, and quality improvement.
• Maintaining current information on community resources and guiding parents/providers to appropriate referral as requested.
• Working in collaboration with other specialists on staff including bilingual staff to meet the needs of clients speaking languages other than English.
• Actively participating in ensuring the program is Quality Assurance Certified in best practices.
• Outreach to businesses and community organizations.
• Actively pursuing knowledge of linguistic, racial, and ethnic populations in SDA to address that population's needs.