Resources for Families
Early Childhood Special Education: The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) recognizes the importance of early childhood and provides access for young children with disabilities (ages 3-5) to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) individualized to meet children’s needs.
Additional resources and information for families is available here.
Learn more about how to access special education for young children here!
This page provides local community resources to support families and childcare providers across Oklahoma. It includes helpful tips, trainings, and links to organizations offering services in health, safety, and family well-being.
Because kids don’t come with instructions.
1-888-574-KIDS (5437)
What is expulsion?
- The complete and permanent removal of a child from an educational system, e.g., child care center (Gilliam & Shahar, 2006).
- Terminating the enrollment of a child or family in the regular group setting because of a challenging behavior or a health condition. (Caring for Our Children; National Health and Safety Performance Standards Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, 3rd edition)
What is suspension?
- Reduction in the amount of time a child may be in attendance of the regular group setting, either by requiring the child to cease attendance for a particular period of time or reducing the number of days or amount of time that a child may attend. Requiring a child to attend the program in a special place away from the other children in the regular group setting is included in this definition. (Caring for Our Children; National Health and Safety Performance Standards Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, 3rd edition)
What are challenging behaviors?
- Any behavior that makes it difficult for a young child to be successful in a group environment. Such behaviors interfere with a child’s ability to positively interact with others and may disrupt the learning process or even pose health and/or safety risks. Such behaviors often frustrate adults because the behaviors do not respond to typical behavior intervention strategies. (Izen and Kalinowski, 2010)
- Any repeated pattern of behavior that interferes with or is at risk of interfering with optimal learning or engagement in prosocial interactions with peers and adults. (Powell, Fixsen, Smith, & Fox, 2007)
This TEDx Talk by Rosemary Allen serves as a great introduction to suspension and expulsion. It provides insight into the core issues and helps you think about strategies to address the problem.
Resources to Share with Families contains articles, links, and tools that can either be directly shared with family members or used to help staff think about how to communicate with families about challenging behavior.
Preventing Suspensions and Expulsions in Early Childhood Settings: A Program Leader’s Guide to Supporting ALL Children’s Success is an excellent resource developed by national experts. The guide is a research-based tool aimed at helping you eliminate suspensions and expulsions in your early childhood program by addressing the underlying root causes. The guide provides information, recommended policies and practices, resources, and tools targeted at three levels or tiers of support to help program leaders. There are links to a variety of video clips and programs that may be useful for staff development, and a brief (5-7 minute) optional self-assessment is provided that will result in a tailored roadmap to navigating the guide.
Additional Resources for Families
Dolly Parton Imagination Library
Before the Bell! Resources for Families
Starters for Giving Positive Feedback
Tucker the Turtle Story
Greeting Board
Emotional Piggy Bank
Visual Routine Supports
Resources for Providers
Early Childhood Special Education: The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) recognizes the importance of early childhood and provides access for young children with disabilities (ages 3-5) to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) individualized to meet children’s needs.
Additional resources and information for families is available here.
Learn more about how to access special education for young children here!
General Resources
Starters for Giving Positive Feedback
Tucker the Turtle Story
Greeting Board
Emotional Piggy Bank
Visual Routine Supports
Resources for Programs Currently Implementing
Implementation Tools
“You Got It!” Teaching Social and Emotional Skills
Hot Buttons Activity
Tucker the Turtle Story
Greeting Board
Starters for Giving Positive Feedback
Emotional Piggy Bank
Visual Routine Supports
General Resources
A Guide for Early Childhood Professionals to Support Young Children’s Resilience
Checklist of Early Childhood Practices that Support Social Emotional Development and Trauma-Informed Care
Self-Care for Teachers
Trauma Informed Early Childhood Services (TIECS)
After a Crisis: How Young Children Heal
How to Implement Trauma-informed Care to Build Resilience to Childhood Trauma
What are ACES? And how do they relate to toxic stress?
Helping young children who have experienced trauma: Policies and strategies for early care and education
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network Fact Sheets
ARC: Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency: A Comprehensive Framework for Intervention with Complexly Traumatized Youth
CPP: Child-Parent Psychotherapy
PCIT: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
Helping young children who have experienced trauma: Policies and strategies for early care and education
Trauma Screening Resources and Tools
Young Child PTSD Checklist (YCPC)
Early Childhood Traumatic Stress Screen (ECTSS)
Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS) ages 2-10
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) ages 4-16
Resources to Support Young Children Who Bite and Their Family:
How to Help Your Child Stop Biting
Responding To Your Child’s Bite
DEC Position Statement on Challenging Behavior and Young Children
The Division for Early Childhood (DEC)’s July 2017 Position Statement on Challenging Behavior and Young Children (https://tinyurl.com/y8omad5d) readdresses the significance of the healthy social-emotional competence of all children and provides guidance to practitioners, teachers, and families in preventing and effectively responding to challenging behaviors. DEC’s position includes culturally sustaining, family-focused practices, as well as a commitment to inclusion, professional development, technical assistance, and using approaches that eliminate suspension and expulsion.
The Backpack Connection for Teachers and Parents
The Backpack Connection Series includes twenty-five brief articles that address a variety of topics about supporting young’s children’s social emotional skill development. Each article includes content and suggested strategies intended to support teachers and family members. The articles are easy to download, copy and share and are an excellent resource to send home when a new strategy or skill is introduced in the classroom to inform parents about what their child is learning at school and to provide specific ideas on how to use the strategy or skill at home.
Nice Kids Finish First: Study Finds Social Skills Can Predict Future Success
This is a brief (4 minute) piece from NPR about the importance that ‘pro-social’ skills play in a child’s development.
Additional Resources
Shocking Language Tip Sheet
Social-Emotional Development Tip Sheet
Behavior Communicates Tip Sheet
Aggression Tip Sheet
Preventing the Use of Restraint and Seclusion with Young Children: The Role of Effective, Positive Practices
ZERO TO THREE
Family Child Care Resources – English
FCC Program-Wide PBS Benchmarks of Quality
Pyramid Model Practices for Family Child Care Homes
FCC Leadership Team Meeting Minutes & Action Plan
Infant-Toddler Caregiver Reflection Tool
Family Child Care Resources – Spanish
FCC Program-Wide PBS Benchmarks of Quality
Pyramid Model Practices for Family Child Care Homes
FCC Leadership Team Meeting Minutes & Action Plan
Infant-Toddler Caregiver Reflection Tool
Family Child Care Resources – Chinese
FCC Program-Wide PBS Benchmarks of Quality
Pyramid Model Practices for Family Child Care Homes
FCC Leadership Team Meeting Minutes & Action Plan
Infant-Toddler Caregiver Reflection Tool
Family Child Care Resources – Portuguese
FCC Program-Wide PBS Benchmarks of Quality
Pyramid Model Practices for Family Child Care Homes
FCC Leadership Team Meeting Minutes & Action Plan
Infant-Toddler Caregiver Reflection Tool
Resources for Consultants, Coaches and Trainers
Parents can create an account and find child care that meets their needs. Parents can search for programs that are implementing Pyramid Model sites under criteria to see if there is an opening in their area.
Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) also has resources for parents and a number to call and talk to call center consultant.
