Child Care Expulsion Prevention (CCEP)



CORNERSTONES of

Michigan’s Child Care Expulsion Prevention (CCEP) Program,

Early Childhood (0-5) Mental Health Consultation Services

Child Care Expulsion Prevention (CCEP) is an early childhood mental health consultation approach that is integrated within early care and learning settings to promote the social and emotional well being of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and the adults who care for them. CCEP projects serve licensed child day care centers, licensed group day care homes, registered family day care homes, day care aides, and relative care providers.

CCEP projects are funded by the Michigan Family Independence Agency and administered by the Michigan Department of Community Health. Community mental health agencies partner with local/regional Community Coordinated Child Care (4C) offices to implement these projects in a number of locations around the state.

Although projects may vary somewhat from site to site, there are six cornerstones that are essential to any project that provides CCEP services:

1. Provision of programmatic and child centered consultation

2. Qualifications and ongoing professional development required for CCEP consultants

3. Reflective supervision required for CCEP consultants

4. Participation in state-level technical assistance required for CCEP consultants

5. Emphasis on evidence-based practice

6. Collaboration with Community Coordinated Child Care (4C) agencies (child care resource & referral agencies) and other early childhood providers

1. Provision of programmatic and child centered consultation

Optimally, the CCEP consultation approach begins at the programmatic level to build quality at the foundation of the early care and learning setting. Programmatic consultation is provided by early childhood mental health consultants who work in partnership with child care providers and families to improve the overall quality of services in order to promote social-emotional skills for all children, and prevent social, emotional, and behavioral problems.

The fundamental goal of programmatic consultation is to support the caregivers, so they, in turn, can support the children in their care. Programmatic consultation can include services such as: meeting regularly with the director and child care staff to establish a safe and authentic working relationship; supporting and strengthening the director’s leadership role through listening and idea sharing; supporting caregiving staff by observing in classrooms and providing a safe place for staff to reflect upon their feelings about their work and relationships; offering suggestions for building on strengths in caregiving practices; and encouraging parent involvement activities that are creative and meaningful.

Frequently, consultants meet with parents and child care staff who have concerns about the social-emotional-behavioral development of a specific child. This is child/family-centered consultation. A child may be referred to a CCEP program for a number of reasons, such as aggressive behavior, a regulatory disorder, withdrawal/depressive symptoms, or other problems that may put him or her at risk of expulsion from the early care and learning setting. The consultant conducts a comprehensive assessment and creates a collaborative plan with the parent, provider and others involved in the care of the child, to address the issues that challenge the child’s ability to succeed in a particular setting. Consultants use a team approach to build relationships and implement an individualized plan that capitalizes on child, family, and provider strengths in order to achieve positive long-term outcomes.

A systemic, ecological approach to prevention and intervention, incorporating both programmatic and child/family-centered consultation, is what builds capacity to support the healthy social and emotional growth of all children in early care and learning settings. Integrating the two types of consultation offers the best hope of promoting substantive, lasting quality improvements. 

2. Qualifications and ongoing professional development required for CCEP consultants

In order to provide high quality programmatic and child/family centered consultation, CCEP programs are staffed by mental health professionals with special qualifications that enable them to address the complex issues faced by the service population. Qualifications include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Masters degree in social work, psychology or related field

• Experience as a mental health clinician specializing in relationship-based work with young children and their families

• Knowledge of early childhood development (birth through five), particularly social-emotional development

• Experience with the assessment of social and emotional functioning among children ages birth through five

• Experience working in early care and learning settings

• Experience providing consultative services

• Experience providing training and facilitating groups

• Warm, empathic personality and excellent communication skills

• Cultural competence (ideally, representative of the cultural or ethnic population to be served)

Early childhood mental health expertise is crucial to CCEP programming, as it allows CCEP projects to offer relationship-based, family-centered, prevention and intervention services. Consultants provide a diverse array of services such as the following:

• Providing programmatic consultation

o Conducting onsite observation and assessment of the early care are learning setting

o Meeting with administrators and staff to review and to reflect on child care practices

o Assisting staff in building and maintaining healthy relationships with one another, as appropriate

o Providing training for staff and parents on social-emotional development

• Providing child-family centered consultation when caregivers and / or parents have a concern about a particular child

o Observing and clinically assessing the social-emotional development of the child at the early care and learning setting and in the home

o Developing collaborative intervention plans

o Implementing intervention plans (e.g., developmental guidance, linkages to other community resources, etc.)

o Providing responsive, short-term clinical services to families, as needed

o Referring children with serious mental health disorders or families with extreme risks to appropriate mental health programs for long-term services

CCEP consultants are required to participate in ongoing professional development activities. These include technical assistance activities provided by the Michigan Department of Community Health, activities provided by the consultant’s employer, and activities that the consultant decides to pursue individually. Consultants are encouraged to obtain the “Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health Endorsement for Culturally-Sensitive, Relationship-Based Practice Promoting Infant Mental Health” or a graduate certificate in infant mental health studies.

3. Reflective supervision required for CCEP consultants

The work of CCEP consultants is complex and emotional. Consultants are expected to have a vast array of skills and to constantly refine them. They are better prepared to meet the demands of their work if they feel adequately supported.

Ongoing reflective supervision is the primary source of support for CCEP consultants. It provides a foundation for the development of coping mechanisms that help consultants understand and deal with the complex emotions that can arise in their work environments. It is imperative to quality practice.

Reflective supervision entails the building of a positive relationship between staff and supervisor by engaging in open, nonjudgmental and consistent dialogue. Both supervisor and supervisee are active participants in listening and engaging in thoughtful questioning. Reflective supervision in CCEP projects is initiated by administrative staff who are committed to, and knowledgeable about, mental health and educational practices. It is crucial to have reflective support from an objective person so that consultants’ stored experiences do not distort their understanding of what they observe in someone else.

4. Participation in state-level technical assistance required for CCEP consultants

State-level technical assistance (TA) is a fundamental piece that has been built into the CCEP initiative to maintain a foundation of service that reflects quality practice. It entails four distinct services:

a) Development and dissemination of resource materials

Since the onset of funding for the initial CCEP projects, a plethora of written resource materials has been developed, including the following:

• CCEP logic model

• Articles on service delivery

• Data collection forms

• Quarterly reporting forms

• Project directory

• Evaluation reports

These resource materials are shared with projects and are continually refined and revised, based on feedback from care providers, parents and consultants. CCEP projects have reported that these materials are a great help to them when getting started. Resource materials have been sent, upon request, to numerous states.

b) Onsite support and consultation

Onsite TA is provided on an as-needed basis across the state to new, existing and “sprouting” CCEP projects. The state TA consultant provides an array of services, including strategic planning, training, resource sharing, ongoing mentoring, and consultation on data collection procedures and evaluation methodology. TA allows for continuity in service delivery, data collection and reporting.

c) CCEP email group

d) Quarterly TA meetings and special trainings

5. Emphasis on evidence-based practice

Policymakers and funders require that the early childhood mental health programs in which they invest are evidence-based, in order to develop a sound infrastructure of care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. CCEP projects utilize evidence-based tools to assess the social and emotional competence of young children, as well as the quality of the child care environment. Tools include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS)

• Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS)

• Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA)

• Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social and Emotional (ASQ: SE)

CCEP consultants are trained and skilled in the application of these tools, and are able to provide care providers and parents with the resources and training they need in order to participate in their appropriate use.

6. Collaboration with Community Coordinated Child Care (4C) agencies (child care resource & referral agencies) and other early childhood providers

Collaboration between local/regional 4C agencies and community mental health agencies providing CCEP services is critical to the successful implementation of CCEP. The Michigan 4C (MI4C) Network serves all 83 counties in the state through 15 local/regional agencies. The local/regional agencies provide: referrals for child care and family services; training, scholarships and associates degree incentives for child care providers; advocacy on children‘s issues; services coordination; and consultation. Seventy thousand families use 4C child care referral services each year. The MI4C Network, with all its expertise and connections to the child care community, is clearly the best vehicle for accessing providers and families in order to inform them about the availability and scope of CCEP services.

The local/regional 4C agency collaborates with the mental health agency by:

• Referring families to CCEP when they call the 4C agency and indicate that their child is having problems in his or her child care program.

• Inviting CCEP consultants to present at regional 4C conferences and trainings.

• Publicizing CCEP in 4C newsletters and other publications for child care providers.

• Publicizing CCEP at 4C trainings and conferences for providers.

• Serving on the CCEP advisory committee/community team.

Other early childhood providers also are critical to successfully integrate a CCEP project within an early care and learning setting. Each CCEP project has an advisory committee / community team, including a range of early childhood providers who collaborate to implement CCEP by providing guidance to the project, making referrals to the project, serving as referral sources from the project, and publicizing the project.

It is important that the heart of CCEP, comprised of these six cornerstones, is understood and supported by all CCEP project staff, so that we are truly creating a cohesive statewide system of sustainable care for our babies, toddlers and preschoolers, putting social and emotional health at the core of early childhood development.

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