Online Toolkit to Support High-Quality Early Childhood Education in Arkansas

The site, AReceResources.org, is for early educators, child care program owners and directors, family child care providers, and early childhood education support staff. The site will launch in February 2022 and will offer access to more than 2,000 practical tools, handbooks, policies and guidance on essential topics such as child development, best practices, small business management, health and safety, and emergency preparedness. Arkansas joins 33 other states across the country that have adopted a shared resources platform to support the success of early childhood education.

Deniece Honeycutt, director of Early Care and Education Projects, said her office will continue to work with CCA For Social Good, a company that creates web-based platforms for nonprofits, to expand and customize the site to meet providers' and professionals' specific needs in Arkansas.

The organization has been serving Arkansas for nearly 30 years in collaboration with the U of A College of Education and Health Professions. It's funded by the Arkansas Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Human Services Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education.

ECEP assists early childhood educators in Arkansas so they can offer children quality care in all settings — including center-based, family child care, faith-based, home visiting or after-school programs. The organization educates professionals through high quality, accessible courses, connects providers to each other and experts in the field and equips professionals with coaching and resources to put learning into practice.

Founding director Bobbie Biggs established the service unit in 1992 after she saw the need to support early learning efforts for programs caring for children before entering kindergarten. Child Care Orientation Training was the first course the organization offered. Since then, the class has taught over 40,000 early care and education teachers.

ECEP makes a significant impact statewide. The shifting context of early childhood education in Arkansas continues to bring opportunities for even more growth, Honeycutt said. Before 2020, more than 200 trainers throughout Arkansas delivered courses in various locations, including childcare centers, public schools, vocational centers, technical institutes, community colleges and other post-secondary education facilities. During the pandemic, the organization moved all its traditional face-to-face courses online, and the number of childcare providers who were able to attend nearly doubled.

"I don't ever see us ever going back to offering only face-to-face courses," Honeycutt said. "The online format has had an enormous impact on the outreach of the program."

In 2020, the organization created two new courses: Infant-Toddler Social-Emotional Learning and Observation and Assessment. Honeycutt said they also began offering a few self-paced options. All courses are free to early care and education teachers.

Now links to those courses and a wide variety of resources will be available on this new, comprehensive website. Teachers will be able to access helpful information in one spot quickly.

"I hope that the site serves as the initial impetus for the types of shared services we will offer in the years to come," Honeycutt said. "We'll be collaborating with other state contractors to include their resources on the website as well. With their input, we'll continue expanding and customizing the site to meet providers' and professionals' specific, local needs. We look forward to the platform becoming the first place individuals in the early education field look when they need tools, support and guidance."