To address the shortage of child care slots and staffing challenges, the Park Rapids area has decided to use a futuristic vision – “growing their own” child care providers.
The Park Rapids Area Schools is now offering courses through which a student can earn a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential while in school.
The Northwest Minnesota Foundation provided a $12,000 grant through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to support this effort.
“We believe that supporting the partnership and the credential program will help to solve some of the issues the area currently has – and make the community stronger,” said Missy Okeson, Child Care Senior Program Manager at NMF.
The following was submitted by the Park Rapids Area High School.
At Park Rapids Area High School, we are now offering a new course to juniors and seniors through which they can earn a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential while in high school. The CDA credential is based on the knowledge of the nation’s leading scholars in early care and learning. Using multiple sources of evidence, it is the only comprehensive system of its kind that recognizes the essential competencies needed by entry-level and all early childhood professionals.
The CDA is based on a core set of competency standards:
- Planning a safe and healthy learning environment
- Advancing children’s physical and intellectual development
- Supporting children’s social and emotional development
- Building productive relationships with families
- Managing an effective program
- Maintaining a commitment to professionalism
- Observing and recording children’s behavior
- Understanding principles of child development and learning
The first two trimesters satisfy the 120 clock hours of professional early childhood education that is required for the credential. The third trimester course will be a field experience class to work with children from ages birth to 5 years old. This course will count towards the 480 hours of working with children needed to gain their CDA credential. The work experience can be as a volunteer or a paid staff member.
Beyond the CDA course, we offer two additional courses, Today’s Healthy Choices and Tomorrow’s Healthy Challenges, both taught by Vicki Schroeder who is also a partner in the CDA class. Tomorrow’s Healthy Challenges uses RealCare Baby simulators with the students and gives them an inside look at how to care for a child, along with the additional simulators that show the effects of decisions made during pregnancy. Vicki will also teach an additional class this spring called, Intro to Education, where students can explore careers in teaching and other educational professions at all grade levels.
These classes and the purchase of the RealCare Baby Simulators would not have been possible without the following partners.
We want to send a huge thank you to the following:
- Dr. Elaine Hoffman, from the North Country Vocational Cooperative Center in Bemidji, who has contributed substantial funds for the purchase of accessories for the course. This includes but is not limited to 10 RealCare Baby Simulators, including two with special needs, all in various races and genders; an additional simulator baby with a light-up brain to prevent shaken baby syndrome; videos and models; among others. The purchase also came with 10 car seats, diaper bags, bottles, diapers, and a training platform for teachers to implement the program. These simulators and accessories were purchased through Merri Johnson with Realityworks.
- Michelle Wilkowski, MAHUBE-OTWA Head Start Director, was heavily involved in the development of this course. Teachers from MAHUBE-OTWA are financed through a grant through the Northwest Minnesota Foundation so the class can be offered. One of these teachers, Deb Gilbertson, will be on-site at Park Rapids Area High School, teaching the high school students and providing opportunities for these students to earn hours of experience working with young children at MAHUBE-OTWA child care centers and area family childcare providers. The teachers are direct partners in this project to make this possible and will be leading this course for the 2023-2024 school year.
- Deb Gilbertson is the contracted education teacher for the CDA course and provides the necessary class hours for our students. The students love her and appreciate her insight into this career field. Robin Soyring will join the course when students are looking for placement opportunities to complete the necessary field experience hours for their CDA license. Both are contracted with MAHUBE-OTWA.
- Michael Neusser and Missy Okeson, from the Northwest Minnesota Foundation, who provided the necessary grant funding for the teaching salary for the early child care class to make this class possible. This was done through NMF’s Child Care program to promote growth and development for child care licensure and placement growth in our region.
- Mary Thompson, from Heartland Lakes Development Commission, who works to build connections as well as other employment opportunities for these credential earning students in the area. Mary’s organization also offers scholarships for these students to pursue higher education in this field. Mary is working with other key professionals in the county to create Duplex Daycare placement opportunities with MAHUBE-OTWA right here in Hubbard County.
Student feedback from both courses:
- “I don’t want to have children until they can be one of my main priorities and as of right now, that’s not possible.”
- “There were tons of teachers telling me that I was doing a great job.”
- “Overall, I loved the experience. I was disappointed to give it up at the end of the day.”
- “I have waited for so many years to get to do something like this and I finally got to. It was SO MUCH fun!!”
- “It taught me to have respect for those who have kids.”
- “I was embarrassed when my baby cried because people kept looking at me.”
- “I know a lot more about babies so I would probably wait a little longer (than I thought) so I know for sure.”
- “They were so much fun to take care of when happy, but so hard when you had to figure out what was wrong.”
- “The toughest part of my day was I felt like I didn’t learn anything in classes because I was constantly worrying about my baby.”
- “I did like the experience and think it should be a mandatory class for everyone.”
- “I would say that one of the hardest things about the experience was trying to figure out what the baby needed.”
- “There was one part where I was trying to get my lunch, but the baby was crying and needed to be fed, so I was trying to balance the bottle on the blanket while carrying my food and the diaper bag and while the baby was crying. Everyone was looking while I tried to get the baby to stop crying. That part was stressful. I think that is how some parents feel when they are in the grocery store and their baby is crying.”
- “The moral of the story is having kids is hard, especially in high school!”
Teacher Feedback:
- Deb: “The RealCare Baby experience is a wonderful addition to the CDA course. It gives the students a very realistic experience in caring for a baby. So far, they have had the baby for the day in the classroom. We are planning for the students to take their RealCare Baby home for a weekend at the end of January. They will get to experience two full days of taking care of a newborn which will include nighttime feedings. The students are looking forward to this experience. I am really enjoying getting to know the students and sharing my knowledge of child development. We need quality early childhood teachers and family childcare providers, and I hope these students go on and get jobs in infant, toddler, or preschool childcare centers or family childcare.”
- Vicki: “This first experience with the RealCare Baby simulators was a rousing success. The entire school had the experience of these babies because the students in the Healthy Challenges class took their babies with them to all classes. I have had several students ask me when the next class will be taught so they can take care of the babies for the day too. The students were able to experience both the joys and difficulties of taking care of an infant.”
- Krystal: “The RealCare Baby Simulators have been a huge asset for our school and Panther Tracks Pathways program. I had a couple of these students in my Entrepreneurship class and those students were able to explain to their peers how they could start a daycare business. These RealCare Baby Simulators impacted more than just these few classes, but the whole school. Students were surprised to see these babies being cared for all over the school and it was fun to overhear students saying they wanted to take those courses next year because of the simulators. We know these careers are in such high demand, so we are grateful that we can now offer these courses to introduce these careers to our students and to provide hands-on learning opportunities. Again, we are so thankful for these partners and teachers for helping us make these career classes possible!”
