Early Childhood Initiatives

The Personnel Development Partnership (formerly CSPD) created an Early Childhood (EC) Committee in the Spring of 2002. The EC committee was developed in response to an emerging consensus that it was important to organize the early childhood community into a collaborative partnership. The primary task of the Committee was to increase cohesiveness, and decrease fragmentation, of early childhood special education services. Consistent with this effort, the Committee also explored ways to reduce the shortage of qualified early intervention professionals. Extensive outreach was undertaken to identify and invite early childhood leaders to participate in this initiative.

The Committee is now an important part of the Partnership. The Partnership was awarded General Supervision and Enhancement Grant (GSEG) in March of 2003- Sept. 2004, and funded local training events, and 8 demonstration projects. We were awarded the Birth to Five Professional Development Partnership grant co-funded by the Departments of Education and Health in fiscal year 2003-2004. In the grant from the Department of Education fiscal year 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 funds targeting professionals serving children ages 3-5 were utilized to support graduate coursework. The EC committee has since identified building capacity to support young children with challenging behaviors as its new priority and continues its work in this area with a train the trainer initiative in Positive Beginnings. The EC committee represents a very active component of the partnership.

The Early Childhood Committee Membership includes representation from the following organizations:

• Early Steps Program (2 regions)
• School District Representatives from Charlotte, Collier, Hendry, Glades and Lee Counties
• Edison College
• FDLRS Child Find (Island Coast, Heartland and Suncoast)
• Florida Gulf Coast University Faculty (College of Education and College of Health Professions)
• Early Learning Coalition of SW Florida
• Private Part C Providers
• Parents/Family Members
• Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD)
• Division of Blind Services
• Technical Assistance and Training System (TATS) Project