Heading into fall, conditions for thriving

'Full conditions for teachers to thrive, for children to thrive'

Early Bird readers, hello again. Newcomers, welcome! If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up here to receive it every two weeks, and join our conversation on issues facing North Carolina’s young children and those who support them. If you’re already a subscriber, please help us reach more people by sharing this with your friends and co-workers interested in early childhood education.

The EdNC early childhood team (myself, policy analyst Katie Dukes, and our wise editor Eric Frederick) has covered a lot of different areas as some of our young learners start a new school year and all of us head into a new season:

• Updated CDC guidance for early childhood programs and schools with loosened quarantine and mask restrictions.
• An application open until Sept. 16 for Dogwood Health Trust funds for efforts that strengthen the early childhood workforce in the Western part of the state.
• What parents say they want and need from child care, from a cross-state listening tour by CandL — a coalition aimed at moving North Carolina toward a more publicly funded early care and education system.
• The gaps of information about harmful discipline practices in the early years — and how we can do better.

But all these stories have an overarching narrative. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, there is a real need to do better by teachers, young children, and families.

A quote from Katie’s reporting on preschool suspensions and expulsions highlights this common theme.

When asked about alternatives to exclusionary discipline in early childhood classrooms, Iheoma Iruka told Katie: “Banning it is not just going to magically change everything. Let’s make sure that we’re providing the full conditions for teachers to thrive, for children to thrive.”

What do those conditions look like? Experts told Katie that addressing low early childhood teacher compensation and giving teachers resources and training would make a world of difference in the well-being of young children. Ensuring children and families’ identities are affirmed is the ultimate goal, they said.

Those are the same goals that the Dogwood team is working toward: strengthening and expanding the critical early childhood workforce. These goals also align with what families on CandL’s listening tour have said: We need access to supported teachers and consistent care, and we need our families and children to be respected and affirmed.

We’ll be on the road in the coming weeks, visiting community colleges and asking about early childhood teacher preparation and child care in communities across our state.

We’re excited to bring you new stories and insights along the way. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping those common goals in mind. Thanks for teaching us.