Early childhood educators (ECE), including paraprofessionals, work with young children with disabilities to support learning and development. They are increasingly responsible for providing important supports ranging from direct services, to assisting with classroom management, to implementing behavioral management plans. However, while they play critical roles in the lives of young children with disabilities, little has been done to ensure that pre-service programs are adequately preparing ECEs to serve these children. Also, as classrooms have become more diverse, it is critical for early childhood educators to be adequately prepared to serve children who are linguistically and culturally diverse. The purpose of this project is to work with early childhood community college programs in North Carolina to enhance and redesign courses to better prepare ECEs to serve children with disabilities and children from diverse backgrounds.
